Not All That is Over is Past
by Doppler Effect
Summary: Sequel to Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost. Gibbs's team is called in to Amestris for the murder of an NCIS agent found in Dublith. However, it's not a simple murder. Because that would just be too easy, wouldn't it?
1. Prologue

a/n: Yay! I was never planning to do this when I wrote the series, but I got two reviews (from Yancha Kitsune, and, later, Torn Apart Paper Dinosaur) that ended up making me think about writing a sequel, and hey, what do you know? A sequel!

I'm doing a bit of a victory dance over here, since school's out for me. Been so for a about a week. Before it finally settles in, it still feels like one really long weekend. The shock that I'm free at last (or at least for a summer) won't hit until later. And then I'll be running around my town singing. Anyway, probably faster updating than last time.

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist, I don't own NCIS.

* * *

><p>"Mrs. Curtis! Mrs. Curtis!" someone shouted at the door.<p>

She opened it. "What?" she asked, looking down at the confused child standing on the doorstep.

"There's someone sleeping on the ground behind Kire's house! We can't get him to wake up!" the kid complained. Izumi frowned, and closed the door behind her. The kid, Shawn, ran off, and Izumi followed closely behind. A short walk later, and they came to an alleyway with a crowd of kids standing in it.

"Hey, mister, you need to get up. It's not clean in here," a child near the center of the group said.

"Hey, scoot! Mrs. Curtis is here!" Shawn called out, waving his short arms for emphasis. The other kids backed away, parting to let the alchemist through. Even before they did, though, she could already see the person lying there over the tops of their heads. He was a grown man, taller than her, with a different style of clothes on that she hadn't seen before. From the way he was, she would've also thought he was sleeping.

If there hadn't been a telltale spot of red near where his heart was, and if the ground wasn't wet beneath him. And not with water, either.

"Go back home, children," Izumi said briskly, quickly shooing the kids away from the body. "Go on, I think he wants to sleep in peace." The kids reluctantly backed off, and walked out of the alleyway, talking cheerfully. They didn't know what had happened.

The kids continued their regular path, and then darted around someone approaching. Izumi looked up, and saw Sig approaching. He glanced at the body, and then to Izumi.

"Call the police. They might not know who this is, but it'll be a start," she said wearily.

* * *

><p>"Fuhrer!" Breda called from his desk. "A report came in of a corpse in Dublith."<p>

"So?" Mustang said uninterestedly, but looked up all the same.

"He had an identification tag that labeled him as being from a 'Naval Criminal Investigative Services', which not only do we not have, but is also-"

"American," Mustang sighed. "Anyone we know?"

"Lieutenant Jason Thoy?"

"Never heard of him. I'll call up NCIS, then."

* * *

><p>"Gibbs," Gibbs answered, simultaneously smacking Dinozzo upside the head for something that was not very thought through and said. His hand paused for a fraction of a second as he saw the caller ID, but the fraction of a second later it dropped into a normal position. "How's Amestris these days?"<p>

The other three immediately stopped what they were doing (pretending McGee's desk was a basketball hoop to throw wadded up pieces of paper onto, casually exchanging verbal fire, grumbling about the mess on his desk), and looked up at Gibbs. He glanced back at them, content that the message to shut up and pay attention had been received.

"None the worse for wear. NCIS has jurisdiction in other countries, correct?" Fuhrer Mustang asked from the other end.

"Yup, in some cases. Other times, CIA takes over."

"Guy with NCIS identification badge?"

"Yeah, that's us. Where's the body?" Gibbs asked. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his agents start grabbing their things for a usual murder. They probably hadn't realized yet that they wouldn't be going immediately if they didn't want to get lost.

"Dublith. It's a bit of a stretch from where the portal is, but there's nothing really to be done about that. I'll send Ed over at the least to show you there. Al will probably go along with him, too."

"May I ask why Ed in particular? He retired a while back."

"Yeah, but he still owes me and I still have a bunch of payback for pranks he pulled. Also, not many people know about the dimensional thing, and I'd like to keep it that way. Ed and Al already know, and out of the other people who do, they're all busy." The short pause that Gibbs figured was probably spent glaring meaningfully at nearby subordinates ensued, and then ended. "Or should be, anyway. Ah, and he probably won't know that he's taking you to Dublith until you tell him. Don't stand in the way of him and anyone he knows there. Namely, his teacher."

"Ah. We've heard some rumors about her."

"Yes. Anyway, good luck."

* * *

><p>The phone rang. Ed answered it.<p>

And then immediately wished that he hadn't.

"Do you have a few days to spare?" Mustang asked on the other end.

"No," Ed immediately responded. He hadn't exactly been a good subordinate, and his ex-superior officer was probably still holding a grudge for a few (a lot) of pranks previously pulled. It was safer to not go along with anything he said.

"Of course you do. See, there are some good things about being retired," Mustang said cheerfully.

"And I was enjoying them before you called," Ed grumbled in response.

"With your girlfr-"

"I dare you to finish that sentence," Ed growled irritably.

Mustang laughed on the other end. "While I would usually immediately finish that, you'd sidetrack from going to the desert to go pick up your NCIS friends to instead yell at me, so instead I'm just going to pretend you didn't say that."

Ed paused. "What're they doing here?" He knew Mustang had set him up, but he didn't really care at the time. Al had walked into the room around the time Ed had stated the dare, and was watching Ed curiously.

"An NCIS officer was found dead on Amestrian soil. There's nothing we can really do, so we're passing it on to NCIS, and Gibbs's team knows this country better than any other NCIS team does. However, they know their way around the Central file rooms, and that's about it. They're not going to be able get to New Optain on their own without getting hopelessly lost and ending up in the middle of Briggs or something. Our train schedules can be bad enough for people who live here, let alone foreigners."

Ed sighed. Al cocked his head at him. "New Optain, you said? When should they be here, you manipulative bastard?"

"They'll be ready whenever you get to the portal. It's, what? A fifteen minute drive for them?"

"Yeah. Five if Ziva or Gibbs is driving. Although 'driving' isn't so much of a correct term as is 'homicidal actions on the streets'. And somehow, they haven't been arrested. I don't get it. I just don't. It's like a death machine, if you're in the car at the time."

"I'll take your word for it. Ah, and by the way... With your girlfriend." Mustang hung up.

"She's not-!" Ed shouted to an empty line as it began to buzz at him to tell him that he was talking to an empty line, which he already knew. "Stupid Fuhrer," Ed grumbled as he hung the phone back up.

"What did he have to say?" Winry asked as she walked into the room.

"Murder in New Optain under NCIS jurisdiction. He wants me to pick the NCIS agents up and direct them to the right town, since apparently no one else qualifies for this horrendously difficult task," Ed said irritably. "And the trains aren't _that_ difficult to figure out. Most days."

"Well, think of it this way. You'll be even with the Fuhrer. Or, more so at least," Winry laughed. "You and Al should both go and pick them up." She emphasized this by pushing them towards the door.

"We don't need two people for this, Winry," Ed said, although all three knew the two would both be going anyway.

"I don't know. If they can't figure out the trains, then street signs might be a little difficult for them, too," Winry said wryly. "They can be terribly hard to understand."

* * *

><p>The loud sound was the first thing that greeted them. There were loud streets in Amestris, sure, but nothing like this. They didn't have that many people, or vehicles, or <em>anything<em> all moving at once to create that much sound. Ed vaguely recalled mentioning that, and hearing that there were cities that were even _louder_ in the country, with even _more_ people from Dinozzo.

"Do we just wait for them here?" Al asked, the first part being softer than the rest, which grew in sound as he competed to be heard.

"Probably. I have limited next to no idea as to how to get there from here. Only took the trip here a few times, and mostly it was from the FBI or CIA building," Ed replied. "They should be here soon."

They spent a few minutes looking around the corners of the building, admiring the views they had on that building that could never be achieved on an Amestrian building. This building, however small it was for D.C., was big compared to the tallest building in Amestris. Finally, Ed said, "Do you think Mustang even told them we were coming?"

Al sighed. "I think he did, or he wouldn't have sent us over here. If not, we would've passed them at some point. Besides, don't be so critical of him. Remember the last time we were here? Fire escape?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. If I'm not, they might think I'm terminally ill or something. The day I'm not critical's the day... I don't know. That would be a very disturbing day. I don't even want to think about that. Sounds horrible." Ed glanced down again. "Hey, you know what? Up here, I'm taller than _everyone_! Woohoo!"

Al rolled his eyes. He leaned against the wall surrounding the top of the building, and looked down at the ground below them. He frowned slightly. "Hey, Ed. Does that look like...?" He didn't finish his sentence. Ed walked over to the edge Al stood at, and looked down beside him.

"Where?" he asked.

Al pointed to someone moving down below. "Him. I don't know why, but doesn't he look Drachman?"

Ed frowned. "These worlds are parallels, so there might be people with the same features as back home. But you're right, he does look Drachman... And kind of pissed off, too..."

The man they were watching entered the building below. He didn't come back out again until several minutes later. He took a taxi, and left. As he left, and they followed him with their eyes, a car that looked like it was probably going at an illegal speed in any country, but realistically was probably only going sixty or so, drove toward the building and stopped. Four familiar people got out of it, and looked up at the roof. One of them waved, which both Elrics responded to similarly. Two of the people below began to walk into the building.

Ed glanced at Al, who was still frowning. "Still worried about the 'Drachman'?" Ed asked.

"What's this building for?" Al asked. "What do people do here?"

"I think it's a hotel," Ed said slowly. The two exchanged glances, no longer caring about what was below. "Then why would the person have taken a taxi, if they needed a hotel? They would probably have been walking, or-" Without any verbal communication, the two simultaneously agreed that where they were was not a very safe place. Both bolted back toward the portal.

That was when the bomb went off.

* * *

><p>an: If you're wondering where this name came from, 'Not All That is Over is Past', that's from _another_ version of the poem 'All that is gold does not glitter'. The other version was the "older" version of it.

If you're wondering, since I didn't really say anything about it, but the reason the Fuhrer's office was contacted for a murder was because they didn't know what 'NCIS' was, and hey, look! A weird guy with a weird badge thing that says 'NCIS'! So, it just sort of went up the grapevine until it got to the Fuhrer.

The whole bomb thing. Yes, I really did just do that. So neh. I resort to incomprehensible grunting to prove my point. Take that.


	2. Rule 39

a/n: I more or less forgot to update on this story, because I was doing some work for Takanami and got carried away (and had waaay too much fun with it for my own good), but I'm updating now, so don't throw anything! *covers head* I think this chapter didn't turn out all that well, though, because I had a headache when writing most of it that went away just as I finished writing it.

Note to all those who do something like Legend of the Five Rings or Dungeons and Dragons: If you're the Game Master or whatever, don't name a character with a high level of status 'Shitari' or something like that. Tsuki, being an extremely dignified one, spit Sunkist out of her nose when she heard the name. Napkin, please?

Anyyyywayyyy. Don't own Fullmetal Alchemist, don't own NCIS. (speaking of which, rule 39 is 'there is no such thing as coincidence) If I did, then I wouldn't be writing this on a site so cleverly named FANFICTION.

* * *

><p>Ziva expertly pulled the car in to the parking lot below the bank the portal was housed on, and managed not to laugh at Dinozzo's expression as he and McGee hurried out of the car. Ziva and Gibbs took their time. As the last two got out, they saw Dinozzo waving at two figures on the roof, both of whom responded in kind.<p>

"Ziva, McGee, wait here," Gibbs said, turning to walk in to the building. Both brothers on the roof leaned back, and moved away from the edge. Gibbs was slightly frowning.

"Don't we all need to go through?" McGee murmured.

"Something is not right," Ziva responded, looking around.

"What?"

"A driver was pulling out of this bank, and sped off in the opposite direction. He looked nervous," she elaborated. While McGee still didn't see anything wrong, if the two with ninja senses on the team were both nervous, then the rest had reason to be as well.

McGee and Ziva watched Gibbs and Dinozzo reach the doors, and go in.

Four seconds later, the third floor exploded. The windows blew out, smoke billowing from them, and fire was clearly seen through the broken windows. The fire quickly grew, moving to the second and fourth floor.

Surprised customers bolted out the door, concerned for their own lives. Ziva and McGee started forward hesitantly, wondering if Gibbs wanted them in there.

Ziva paused, and whipped out her phone. McGee glanced at her, and halted as well. She managed a connection. "Does Gibbs want us to head on to the other roofs and try from there?" About a five second pause was all McGee got before Ziva flipped the phone shut, and ran for the nearest building that wasn't on fire and had some sort of way to get to the roof of the bank.

* * *

><p>Gibbs and Dinozzo hit the stairs. Before they had even hit the burning levels, Ziva called. Gibbs glanced at Dinozzo, gave him a motion to answer it. Dinozzo flipped it open, and a few seconds later asked Gibbs if Ziva and McGee should head to another roof from a different building. Gibbs gave an affirmative nod, and Dinozzo answered into the phone. He closed it, an focused on the stairs.<p>

"Boss. Did they have enough time to get to the portal? Or were they in the building?" Dinozzo asked.

"Don't know. Why do you think we're in here?" Gibbs responded. On the burning levels, it seemed like the doors had managed to keep the fire out of the staircase. They continued up, and soon threw the roof door open.

A quick glance around showed no Elrics standing around. The portal lay open, however, and Ziva and McGee were quickly hopping on to the roof from a window that was close enough to the building to make it a fire hazard for the buildings to be that close together.

"No sign of them?" Gibbs shouted. Ziva shook her head. Something exploded beneath their feet, and the building shook. "Head through the portal. We're not going down either building again." Dinozzo, the nearest, followed Gibbs's orders and dived headlong through the open veil. Ziva and McGee followed after, and Gibbs headed after them as the building finally gave way beneath their feet.

* * *

><p>The automatic doors slid open. Abby looked up from the DNA she was checking out, and saw Vance walk into the room, followed by another agent with evidence bags. Abby clapped at the new round of things for her to investigate, but halted abruptly as she caught Vance's expression.<p>

"What happened? Something's wrong." Abby hopped off her chair, and hurried over to Vance, peering at him.

"That evidence is for a bomb that went off in a bank. The bank was under the portal that was an entry way between the two worlds, which is now gone. That's not the only thing missing. So is Gibbs's team, and the two Amestrians that were sent. Whether or not they got through it in time is unknown, but no bodies that could be theirs have been found yet and could be said without a doubt to be any of theirs," Vance said.

Abby looked at him in shock for a second, before saying firmly, "They'll be back."

"Abby-"

"They'll be back," she repeated, cutting off Vance. "Gibbs and the rest of them will be back. Ed and Al will create a new portal." She picked up the evidence, and started organizing it where she needed it. "Just you wait, they'll be back. They always return."

Vance left through the sliding doors without another word. There was nothing left to comment on.

* * *

><p>His next stop was the autopsy room. Ducky and Palmer barely acknowledged him, both busy over a body. There had only been a few already found, since most of the people in the bank had gotten out before the building had collapsed, and the flood of people had yet to begin when the bomb went off. They were really lucky to have been able to keep the case, since it was seeming more and more like they were going to lose it when the FBI showed up. Until the CIA also stepped in, since the Amestrians had been involved.<p>

The whole debate had taken about two hours, before Vance had finally managed to win the debate by saying the CIA and FBI would receive any information they gained immediately, and that NCIS did indeed have rights to the case since their own had been in the bombing. The last one was what really gave them the case, since it really should have been an immediate thing that NCIS get the case because NCIS agents had been in the bombing.

Also, most of the bodies had already been taken to NCIS, and no one really wanted to go through the hassle of hauling those across the city again.

"No sign of any of them. As of now, I think it's definitely safe to say that none of Jethro's team was killed, and I am one hundred percent certain that neither of the Elrics were killed," Ducky said. "Abby's right; they're alive, and they'll be back."

"As River Tam would say, nothing in the 'Verse can stop their return*," Palmer said with a grin. Vance and Ducky glanced at him, confused. "What, neither of you have seen _Firefly_ or_ Serenity_?" Both stared at him. "Sorry, Dinozzo's rubbing off on me."

Vance and Ducky looked at each other, and dismissed another one of Palmer's inopportune comments easily, going back to what they were doing.

"Abby talked to you, then?" Vance asked.

"Yes, she was quite upset about the whole ordeal. Wanted to make sure the FBI and CIA wouldn't take it, that none of the bodies were theirs, if we had any evidence for her. She'll be fine when they return, though," Ducky said.

* * *

><p>"What the hell happened?" Mustang stood quickly, as six solemn-faced, slightly burned, scratched up, and generally dirty alchemists and federal agents filed grimly into his office<p>

"Bomb in the bank. Went off a few seconds after we went in," Gibbs said as way of explanation. "Don't know the complete extent of the damage, but as far as I can tell, the portal's shut down for good. Wouldn't let us back through again."

"Shit." Mustang sat back down. Then rose again. "Does anyone need to be checked out?"

No one made any movement to say they did. "We weren't in the burning building, they got around most of the fire, and the other two were out seconds after the bomb went off," McGee said. "Although, isn't it a bit odd that someone would take the time to set off a bomb, and then only blow up one floor?"

"Malfunction, maybe," Ziva suggested.

"Wait, you said the portal was gone, right? Or at least rendered temporarily inusable, right?" Mustang asked. Gibbs nodded in response. The two had clicked on to an idea.

"Then the bomb wasn't for us in particular, it was for the portal. If we got in the way, double score," Gibbs said.

"The building must've been some sort of holder for the portal. With the building gone, neither part of the portal could be used."

"Why?" Ed interrupted the train of thought the two were using to bounce ideas off each other and speak aloud. "What particular reason would that serve, other than to piss us off? Al and I think we saw the culprit, and he passed you on the road. He would've probably known in advance that you weren't in the building, so chances were that you wouldn't be caught on this side of the portal when the bomb went off. And as Gibbs mentioned, the chances of any of you dying were small."

"It couldn't have been to kill us either. We were on the roof, near the portal. There was almost no chance of us getting killed," Al added.

"Unless the bomb was supposed to be big enough to take out the whole building," Dinozzo said. "Which we won't know, until we can get back through. Although at this rate, that's an 'if'. It could have been for any of us, since we've already assessed a possible malfunction and the malfunction could have upset the timer, too."

"Wait, Ed, you said that you and Al saw the bomber?" Breda asked, pointing out something that had gotten lost in the flow of conversation.

"Yeah. He looked Drachman or something," Ed replied.

"Any other description?" Mustang asked.

"We didn't get much of a look at him. We were too high up for anything else than that," Al said. "Aren't bombs kind of delicate things to make, though? We don't have them in this world, so how'd he figure out how to make one?"

Dinozzo shook his head. "If it was a crude bomb, it wouldn't take much finesse. It's controlling the explosion that's the delicate part. But if he was trying to burn and destroy, he wouldn't care about that. And if he's Drachman, he'd be an amateur. It'd be no wonder that the bomb took out less than he would have wanted to on the blow."

"We're assuming things here," Falman suddenly said. The others turned to him, confused. "Your world's a parallel, right? So, wouldn't features and skin tones found in certain countries have their equivalents? The Drachmans were all supposed to be pulled out."

"He's right," Dinozzo said. "The Drachmans are looking to be the equivalent of Russians. I'd say Germans, but the Amestrians seem to be a lot closer to the Germans than the Drachmans are. Our 'Drachman' could very well be a Russian."

"Do the Russians have anything against you as of right now?" Hawkeye asked.

"Why are all of you looking at me?" Ed scowled. Although Hawkeye had been talking to the NCIS agents, and the other Amestrians had started out looking at them as well, their gazes had drifted to Ed.

" 'Cause you make enemies every five days, it would seem," Mustang said.

"I had _amnesia_ and wasn't there long enough to know where Russia _is. _Satisfied?" Ed shot back. Mustang raised his hands in a 'calm down' gesture.

"Fine, so the kid didn't start something for once." Mustang turned back to the agents.

"_What_ did you just call me?" Ed said through gritted teeth. Mustang waved him off again. "That's what I thought."

"Psh. Don't fool yourself. Unless you ever grow again, you're always going to be short enough to call 'kid' no matter how old you ever get," Mustang said simply. If one watched carefully and knew what they were looking for, he seemed to be preparing for an explosion.

"You stupid Fuhrer bastard!" Ed yelled in response, beginning to cross the room before a grinning Al held him back.

"Too easy, too easy. You really need to learn how to calm down every time that's mentioned," Al said cheerfully. Ed ignored him, and continued to yell profanities and try to free himself from Al's grip.

"Back on topic, I can think of one incident with the Russians that they might be mad at us for recently**, but they wouldn't do something like this for that," Gibbs said. "Unless the Russians are trying for war, it probably wasn't them."

"So, we're back to the Drachmans, then. I thought all of them were supposed to be pulled out?" Ziva asked. "When could any of them have prolonged their stay, and why would they sever their tie back here? Why not collapse the portal from this side instead?"

"If they wanted to make it less obvious that is was the Drachmans, they probably would have severed it from that side. They had plenty of time to drop in sleeper cells before the Xingese and Amestrians ran them out from their post by the portal," Al said.

"That would've required them to know that we were coming," Mustang said.

"They knew that Nii-san*** was in there. They probably guessed that someone would appear at some point, and it would be best to have someone already stationed there, in which case they might have dropped off some instructions on what to do in case they were cut off from receiving orders from their leaders," Al corrected.

Gibbs shifted his position, regaining the attention of those in the room. "So we have a Drachman with only orders previously sent to rely on, who may or may not have backup, who decided to set off a bomb on the building that had his only way home on it."

"Yeah." Dinozzo shrugged like that was obviously the answer. From Gibbs's pose and look, it wasn't. The room fell to silence as they tried to pick up on what Gibbs was pointing out.

Gibbs sighed, and shook his head slightly. "How loyal are the Drachmans to their superiors?"

Ed caught on. "Not loyal enough to do something under an iffy order that might lose them the chance of getting back home."

"There's another way from here to there that the Drachmans know about. Or they can create another one, in which case those 'sleeper cells' might have really only been there for the time it took them to figure out how to build a bomb and then build it," Hawkeye said, adding to the theory.

"Since it's now cleared up-more or less-how they did it, then why, and to who?" Havoc said. "We never really figured that out. They'd be ticked off at Ed for whatever reason they were mad at him in particular in the first place, and they'd be irritated at you-" he gestured to the NCIS agents, "-for stopping them. Why a bomb, anyway? They were always pretty up-front people before. If they were going to attack someone, they did it to their faces with guns and fists."

Ziva perked up. "They couldn't have been there for a day, then, to know that that would have been a bad idea. They wouldn't have lasted a minute in a confrontation like that. They would have needed to have spoken to someone we either knew or had fought with before to know that."

"Finding someone who knew that wouldn't have been something done as easily as finding out as to how to make a bomb," McGee said. "As for who it was aimed at, it depends on who they hated more."

"Probably Ed and Al, then," Breda said. "The war declaration in the first place was less based on Ed personally, but more on what he represented as a State Alchemist. I doubt they realize that he's retired now. It probably wouldn't matter, since they're just plain mad at him."

"The bomb was timed close enough that we were near the building. If we'd all been in it, then that just would've been a bonus. Although, it doesn't make sense if it was aimed for all of us, and not the portal, since we would've had barely enough time to get into the building. The bonus wouldn't have been aimed for," Dinozzo said.

"Actually, it does make sense. Al caught on to the Drachman pretty quickly. If they wanted to try and take us out too, then they couldn't have given the bomb a lot of time to destruct, and just hoped you all made it in by chance," Ed said, looking at the Americans for the 'you's.

"Didn't we suggest the idea of a malfunction? We still have a bunch of 'if's flying around. We're grasping at straws," Mustang reminded.

"The only way to be able to tell what's happening would be to search the crime scene, which we currently can't get to," Gibbs said. "That's not happening anytime soon, so why don't we just ask them?" Gibbs finished his sentence in a way that suggested that they all should have thought of that sooner and that'd he been thinking of that the whole time.

The others exchanged glances. Ed's and the rest of Gibbs's teams looks said that they had wondered when Gibbs would suggest something like that.

Mustang raised an eyebrow slightly. "Well... I don't see any reason why they'd be mad at an accusation like that, considering they probably did it in the first place, and can't really do anything about it otherwise since their new army is now in tatters. Again. Might take a while for the message to get there and then for the message to get back again. Maybe a week or so."

"In that case, we've got a crime scene here to visit, don't we?" Gibbs said, putting on the NCIS hat. "Might be about time we finally got to that."

* * *

><p>an:* It's been years since I heard about the series, and I'm _still _mad at Fox for cancelling Firefly. (* *** *** who the *** **** decided to*** * ** (this can go on for years. Moving on.)) The situation just struck me as the right kind to insert something like that, and since Dinozzo wasn't there to say it, I had to have Palmer say it. Because no opportunity to bitch at Fox about the cancellation of the best show on this planet should ever be passed up.

**_Chimera._ "How'd they know we were off the boat?" "I don't think they did.", last one being said completely calmly.

_***_brother, or older brother if translated directly. Due to a review, I finally figured out the mystery behind onii-san and nii-san: onii-san is more proper/polite. nii-san is more lax.

Shock hit. I'm... really out of school. I'm free until next August. I'm free~...

Ahem. Anyhow, besides my brief psychosis (_Revelation leading to my psychosis and inspiration, Digest another hallucination, psychosis by recreation, Happy till the next deterioration, psychosis_-Poets of the Fall), I may not be updating as fast as I usually do for a reason. I assisted in writing a one-shot on Takanami's account, and accidentally created a character that we (mostly me) fell in love with. So I now have another story to write, with an adorable little silent girl who is slightly evil. However, that one will probably only be done in my spare time.


	3. Amiability?

a/n: Home again, home again, jiggity jig... anyway. Busy retrieving me marbles, be right back. (Give me me Lucky Charms!)

...yeah... um, my insanity is currently running amock right now, but even if it is, I don't own NCIS or Fullmetal Alchemist. (That's what she said!) Subconscious! Shut up! Not Tsuki speaking, by the way. She's busy sleeping. Speaking of sleeping, my family's kind of sick right now, including me, so updates might be a little slower, since we're all sleeping all day.

* * *

><p>Dinozzo sighed irritably at the dead body. "Jeez, and we thought we had trouble getting information from the body and crime scene before. This is even worse. We can't even get a time of death, or an official cause of death, or confirmation of his identity..." He trailed off as Gibbs gave him a warning glare, signaling that Dinozzo's mouth should probably hush if the brain wanted to keep its brain cells.<p>

"What have we got?" Gibbs asked, having just come back from talking to some of the kids. He had to admit, though. Dinozzo was right. They didn't really have anything to go on.

"A dead guy in an alley, supposedly named Jason Thoy and an NCIS agent. Death by gun shot, right to the heart. Group of kids playing near by saw the body, tried to wake him up, and when they couldn't, they ran to get help from a nearby butcher," Dinozzo said. "Which I still don't get."

"Don't need to. Anything else?" Gibbs asked.

"Nothing now, but we got a message from the Fuhrer that says he's sending over a coroner," McGee said. "He should be here in a few hours."

A few minutes later, with all photos taken, and all forensic samples taken, in case they could do anything with those, they started to walk away from the body, slowly scanning for anything they missed.

"So, Ed and Al know people here?" Dinozzo asked Ziva. "Why?"

"Why are you asking me, Tony?" Ziva sighed. "I don't know either." She glanced back out of the alley. Al was talking to the husband of the person who the kids had gone to to 'wake' the NCIS agent up, and Ed was talking to the wife. All four seemed to know each other, but the two brothers seemed a bit... edgy. Something occurred to Ziva. "Ah. I think I do know why they know people here. This should be interesting." Ziva smiled, and turned back to her work.

Dinozzo glanced at her. "What? What is it? How do they know each other? Ziva?" Ziva hummed in response. McGee rolled his eyes at the two. Then looked at Ziva.

"Really, what is it?" McGee asked, curiosity taking over. Ziva laughed at them.

"Isn't it obvious?" Gibbs said, walking out of the alley. The other three followed him, McGee and Dinozzo still pestering Ziva.

* * *

><p>Ed and Al glanced around. The NCIS team had immediately walked over to the body, and Gibbs had split off to talk quietly to some of the kids, who still didn't know what had happened. They probably never would.<p>

Izumi and Sig were watching the team, bordering between suspicious and curious. Gibbs hadn't told them they were coming here until a stop before they had to get off here. The Elrics had been all for seeing how the town at the stop after this one was like. Gibbs had dragged them along anyway, and mentioned that the Curtis couple didn't know about the NCIS, since apparently Mustang had *forgotten* to mention them. Since the explanation would be awkward enough as it was, and Mustang had warned them that the two wouldn't need much of a reason to pummel the truth out of them, Gibbs had wisely decided that maybe they should bring along two people that Izumi and Sig Curtis knew and trusted to explain the situation.

As they got closer, the two looked over at them. Both looked surprised, and Ed and Al gave each other a small, weak glance, and headed over to them. The last time they'd seen each other, Ed and Al had been hopping on a train illegally to get away from the flying things their teacher was throwing at them. Apparently, she hadn't taken the 'joke' that they'd been in a parallel universe very well.*

"Who're they?" Izumi asked, nodding her head at the team. "And what the hell are they _doing_?" She was looking at the forensic side of what they were doing and the pictures being taken.

"NCIS. Naval Criminal Investigative Services. They're Americans. They're technology is quite a bit more advanced than ours is, so they need different kinds of stuff than what murder investigators over here need," Ed said slowly, looking like he was waiting for something to be thrown at him. "It's taken to help charge the murderers, although I'm not sure how well they'll be able to use it without having access back to their building."

"Traveled a long way to get here?" Izumi asked, although it sounded like she already knew what he was going to say.

"Sort of. Portal collapsed behind us when the building went down on the other side. Don't know if they'll be able to get back now, but until they find out for sure if they can or can't, they're just killing time-" he winced at the bad choice of words "-doing what they came here to do."

"These are the people you were with when you lost your memory?" Izumi asked.

"Yeah. Gibbs is the one talking to the kids, Ziva's the only woman, McGee just got whacked upside the head, and Dinozzo did the whacking. Abby's the one they would've been delivering the forensics to, Ducky and Palmer would have been dealing with the body, and Vance is their boss. I don't think he usually gets involved with their cases, though," Ed listed off. "These four were in the building when it went off, and they came out the portal before the building went down beneath them. The others were all back at the NCIS building." He grinned. "Heh. CIA and FBI are going to have a bad day with this whole thing."

Izumi raised a questioning eyebrow.

"As far as I can tell, FBI work with problems inside their country, and CIA work with problems outside of. They're still trying to figure out which gets the case with occasions like this with the portal since it's inside the country, but the place on the other side is outside of the country. The last time I was there, it took them almost half the day to finally decide to work together on this case," Ed explained. They saw Gibbs walk from the kids to his team and ask something. Dinozzo answered him.

"They'll get the job done?" Izumi asked.

"Roughly and probably with unorthodox methods, but yeah, they'll get it done. Maybe a bit slower without their usual resources, but they'll get the job done."

Sig and Al were a few paces off, talking about general stuff, like how the shop was going, or where Ed and Al had been recently. Ed and Izumi continued quietly talking about the NCIS team and what they were doing. The three team members under Gibbs shot glances at the four, confused, until Ziva finally realized something. The other two turned to her, trying to find out whatever they were thinking of. Gibbs said something easily while walking toward the Amestrians, and the clueless two shot glances at him, gazes seeking information that was far in coming from Gibbs.

Gibbs stopped in front of them. "You're their teacher?" he asked. Behind him, McGee ran into Dinozzo, who had stopped suddenly while looking surprised. Ziva laughed at them. Gibbs shot an exasperated look at his team's childishness over his shoulder at them, and then turned back to Izumi while shaking his head in irritation at his team slightly.

"Yeah, I taught them alchemy," she replied. "You found Ed?"

"Yup." Gibbs began the usual round of questions after a slight pause. McGee, Dinozzo, and Ziva were watching the exchange curiously while McGee rubbed his head where he'd run into Dinozzo's shoulder and Dinozzo rubbed his shoulder where McGee had run into it.

Al, watching without commenting, was the first one to notice what both adults had done with the first questions out of their mouths.** Both had immediately thought of who they trusted that knew the other, and made a query about them to ask without making it seem obvious if the person they trusted trusted the other person. Basically, they'd gotten an idea of whether or not they could trust the other to be honest in what they were doing. Al hadn't seen Gibbs ask someone questions about a murder before, but from Ed's completely relaxed stance and slightly bored expression, Gibbs wasn't pushing anywhere near as hard as he could have been doing.

"I think that's it. We're just waiting for the coroner now, but you're free to head home. So are the kids," Gibbs said, glancing at the children that were still curiously watching the alley that they'd been herded away from. "Do their parents know yet?"

"Most of the parents are still getting back from work, but the ones that are here are taking their kids home. We got them away for a few minutes but they came right back." As if to prove her point, a few adults walked up to some of the kids, and tugged them away from the scene. Some of those kids in turn pulled some of their friends along with them.

Meanwhile, Ed and Al began to slip away from the group of six. Right before they were about to successfully get away, Gibbs raised an eyebrow at them. "Where are you two going?"

The two froze. "Um, well, we thought that... You know, maybe we should head home... Prevent Winry from bashing our heads off..."

"But doesn't she know that you're out here on a request from the Fuhrer?" Izumi said, smiling cheerfully. It would've fooled anyone who didn't know her. Before the boys were about to give an untrue negative, she continued. "Besides, we don't mind you staying here a little longer, and it's been a while since you've seen them." She cocked her head at the NCIS team, still smiling.

The two brothers resisted from giving each other horrified glances, and barely managed to keep the scared expressions off their faces. Both knew that they were trapped, with no way out of it anymore.

Dinozzo grinned. McGee smirked. Ziva rolled her eyes at her teammates' immaturity. Sig was expressionless. Gibbs appeared nonchalant. And Izumi still looked cheerful.

* * *

><p>"How did this happen? And when did we get stuck in this?" Al whispered to Ed.<p>

"I... have no idea," Ed whispered back, a bit horrified. What being was conspiring against them? Wait, don't answer that. Even though it was irrational, and the Truth was probably only laughing at their bad luck while having nothing to do with it, Ed still blamed the white being for the scene in front of them.

They were sitting around the Curtis table. All of them. Sig, Izumi, the Elric brothers, Mason... and the NCIS team. All four of them.

And, to make matters worse for Ed and Al, they were all _getting along. _

It was probably good that they were exchanging words instead of flying pieces of furniture, but that didn't make it any less _creepy._

When they'd first heard that they were going to be doing this, Ed and Al had been worried at first. Gibbs and Izumi had similar personalities, but that had most likely meant that they would be at each other's throats. That was usually what happened. Instead, it seemed to be quite the opposite. They'd gotten along really well, a fact which Sig had been irritated about. The irritation had gone away, however, when Ed had told him that there was no reason for worry, since she wasn't a redhead.

Mason and McGee had clicked quickly, and had been talking almost nonstop. Dinozzo had tried to get in their conversation several times and failed miserably. Ziva had been reveling in that fact, and had started talking between Sig, Izumi, and Gibbs. As far as the Elrics could tell, their conversation seemed to be revolving around knives and politics and what not. The conversations they were having were wide-ranged, and flipped on a dime's notice.

Ed and Al were whispering in hushed tones, shooting looks around the table occasionally, trying to figure out why there wasn't any bloodshed going on. Dinozzo, sitting beside Al, was listening in, having nothing better to do. "What do you mean, when did you get stuck in this? You got stuck in this when you got caught trying to escape."

"Tony!" Al said in surprise, leaning back to look between the NCIS agent and his brother.

"You know that eavesdropping's considered rude, right?" Ed said irritably. Dinozzo shrugged. "Yes, we know that that was _when_ it happened, but _how_?_ Why_? Why us?" Ed groaned softly. Al sighed mournfully.

Dinozzo glanced around the table. "Well, maybe if you'd gotten away a little quicker, or ignored Gibbs-never mind that, bad idea-, you could've gotten away. But since you didn't, we're all stuck here together."

"Why are _you_ complaining?" Al asked absently, poking at his food.

"He's not the center of attention," Ed replied, smirking and taking a drink of water. Dinozzo barely managed to stop himself from throwing something at the blonde. "Now, on to more important things. Any chance of escape?"

"No, not really," Al said immediately.

"Right." Dinozzo sighed. "If I managed to leave, Gibbs would have my head. If you two managed to get out of here, your teacher would have yours."

"Incorrect." Ed held a finger up, and then pointed it to the wall. Or, more correctly, to what was beyond it. "Technically, that sign post outside would."

"Close enough. We're doomed."

"Okay, moving on from our death sentence, which I'd prefer to forget, what's happened since we saw you last month?" Ed asked.

"What's so bad about this again, anyway?" Al asked suddenly. The other two cocked their heads in thought.

"Weirdness?" Ed suggested. Dinozzo shrugged, and after another second's thought, continued on with answering Ed's question.

"Crime, some minor skirmishes, arrests, hugs from Abby, tiny reprimands from Vance that went unnoticed... Something _did _happen, actually!" Dinozzo grinned at the memory. "Gibbs hit someone with a car. Unfortunately, we were also trying to catch the guy, so we couldn't use it later as a reason for him to slow down whilst*** driving."

"Glad his driving habits came in handy," Ed replied. "Okerby and Lynch still pissed?"

"Yeah. You should have seen their faces when they said that we got this case." Dinozzo grinned happily. "They came over to the NCIS building, and it took about half an hour for Gibbs to talk them out of it and then boot them out. Which, considering it was the CIA and FBI, that was pretty good timing."

"Bet they're not happy about the whole portal thing right now," Ed said, frowning. "That whole thing is still bothering me. How'd the portal get there in the first place? Neither side created it, as far as we know. So how'd it get there?"

"I wouldn't put it past my government to do something like that and not tell us, but they would've put it somewhere like Area 51, not on top of a bank. And if they had, the CIA probably would've been the ones making it, and they were clueless as to how it got there. Unless they could just fake it really well, but they probably would've let the FBI know. Anyway, despite any cover ups that would be extremely like them, it just doesn't make any sense for them to make something like that and at least not tell the Amestrians," Dinozzo said.

"In which case," Al added, "Mustang would've told us. Nii-san's not military anymore, but he still trusts him enough to tell him about something like that."

"Drachma might be the reason behind the portal. They asked about it when they came through, but it was kind of like, 'Hey, look a floaty thing... um... Oh shit, when did he get here?' " Dinozzo said.

"So, they might have known about the portal, asked about it to divert attention, and then saw Ed and changed the topic to him to continue diverting attention and also get some answers," Ziva said. The three looked to her, surprised. They'd forgotten about the others in the room, who had fallen silent in favor of listening to the only conversation remaining.

Izumi nodded. "That's possible. While it makes sense that they were trying to find another way to Amestris other than crossing through Briggs, it does seem highly unlikely that they would just happen to stumble upon a portal in the middle of a desert."

"If the Drachmans created it, then that means that there is a way of getting back. The four of you'll be able to get home," Mason said. "Once you figure it out, anyway."

"If it's alchemical, we can definitely find some sort of way to open another one and send you back. Although, if it was, I wonder how the Drachmans managed to open the portal," Ed pondered out loud.

"They were in the desert, right?" Al frowned. "Were they anywhere near the Xerxian**** ruins?"

Ed nodded enthusiastically. Izumi nodded more slowly. "That's a possibility. If they'd stumbled on something like that, they'd have definitely tried it out. They weren't too keen on trying to find out why the portal was there either, so I guess that makes the most sense."

"Xerxian?" Ziva asked, pointing out the Americans' ignorance.

"Xerxes was a city that strived some hundred years ago. Its alchemists were extremely good at their jobs, and we're still just now learning about what they were able to accomplish with it. However, the city was wiped out due to an alchemical reaction that the first homunculus created to gain immortality by using the ruler of Xerxes's own wish to become immortal against him," Al explained. "In some of the ruins that are left, there's still some of their alchemical achievements left. The ruins are in the middle of the desert."

"Seems like a nice tourist spot," Dinozzo commented. "Why would the Drachmans take a pit stop there?"

The Amestrians seemed a little confused by his terminology, but Izumi answered. "Probably to see if there was any sort of alchemical advantage they could get over us. Sent someone further into the desert, told them that something would happen when they really didn't know what would happen, and when the person activated it and the portal sprang up, they investigated."

No one spoke.

Until Dinozzo made the comment that would most surely award him a Gibbs's slap. "Where are we sleeping, again?"

* * *

><p>*Wanted to make this the first time they'd seen each other, but of <em>course<em>, I'd already mentioned that they'd met in the first one. And I wanted to do this completely after that one (which means Ed has his arm back), so I couldn't do that.

**Think about how similar these two are! I didn't actually notice it until I wrote that part, but they're like emotional twins! They both whack the people below them (as a sign of love, as Dinozzo puts it), they both have similar personalities, they both have authority figure issues, etc. etc. It's creepy.

***Got to love that word. By the way, the whole car thing I made up. This wasn't during any particular episode.

****? Xerxes+ian=...

Fixed a switch-up in here I had with the CIA and FBI. Thanks again to **mist shadow**!

Those of you who read my sister's version of the first story. Look, I know I'm doing a sequel, but that doesn't mean that she will. Okay? So don't pressure her into doing one. Even though it would be epic, and funny, and awesome because she wrote it... And by the way, I'm not telling you this next thing because I want another one *coughcough*, but she mightbesortof thinking of doing a sequel anyway, sooo... Maybe if she gets anymore reviews saying she wants a sequel she'll feel pressured into doing another one... You didn't here that from me. Tsuki, why are you looking at me like that? *covering my head*


	4. Return

a/n: Erm, why are you all standing on my doorstep with angry expressions, pitchforks, and flaming torches? You can't be that mad, can you? *starts running for life* SORRY!

Excuse numero uno: I died

Excuse 2: Well, not really, but I might have almost killed myself when I put something in the lawn mower that probably wasn't supposed to be in there before driving it. We pumped it back out (since I realized that it obviously wasn't gas AFTER I put it in), so I'm still aliveish.

3: Aliveish, since I threw up on the plane. Although I guess that's good, since I'd been feeling like shit and was dizzy and disoriented before my guts disembarked.

4: This is the main reason. I was on a plane because I went to Germany. Nice weather, great atmosphere, lots of places to bike in the country side... Anyway, I also passed through Luxemburg (erm, which I sort of slept through. We were only there for about half an hour), and spent a day in Belgium. According to my uncle, Brugge has great beer. Not like I would know... *ahem* And, ah, so does Germany and France... Just, um, second hand info... I also went to France. Spent eight days there, one in Belgium, and nine in Germany.

Go (Japanese for five): You may have noticed that that doesn't total up to the right amount of which I haven't posted. I ALMOST had this chapter done, but then we left, and I never had a chance to get on the internet. And then I sort of got caught up with some Alex Rider stuff, so I sort of put this on the back burner... Anyway, it's up now. Again, sorry! I'm surprised no one had any complaints. Any excess bitching will be received warmly, since I know I deserve it.

Don't own Fullmetal Alchemist or NCIS. For whatever reason, I accidentally put D. Gray-Man instead of NCIS the first time I wrote this and caught it later. Kind of weird and random...

* * *

><p>The night before, after Dinozzo's impromptu remark and much to his embarrassment, Izumi had invited them all to stay at their house. Somehow, they had managed to fit everyone under the house without body parts hanging out the window. In the morning, Gibbs had split up his team and had them <em>politely<em> ask people if they had seen the NCIS agent before he died. He had made sure that he had passed enough warning looks to Dinozzo to symbolize unverbally that 'we're in a foreign country with a foreign system and it would be best not to piss anyone off or make them uncomforable'. To be sure, he had sent Ziva with Dinozzo while he and McGee started on the other side of the city.

The coroner* had shown up before they left and had been able to tell them that Thoy had died before the kids had found him by about half an hour. The body hadn't been moved either, leading the crew to wonder how no one had seen the agent as of yet.

Izumi had headed out to get some groceries. Ed and Al were walking around the city, reminiscing. Al hadn't seen Dublith outside of his armor since he'd trained there. Mason and Sig were taking care of the store while everyone else was gone.

However, while the relative peace in Dublith was going on, a slight rush was occurring in Central. The message to Drachma had been received and answered shockingly fast. Apparently, Drachma had no interest in having Amestris run through Briggs and do some smiting on the north side of Briggs, which they had apparently interpreted the message to be a warning about. They had good reason though, what with the lack of army they would have defending themselves. The only problem that this created for themselves was that even before they read the letter, the Amestrians immediately knew that the Drachmans knew something and were guilty of something. It also meant that the Drachmans were very smart to decide to not push the Amestrian's buttons, considering that they were now possibly in guilt of killing four foreign and federal agents as well as two brothers who had assisted Amestris, a bad position for Drachma if they were found guilty.

Of course, this all resulted in even more turmoil in a Drachman governmental building than what was going on in Amestris. After all, everything should have gone perfectly. There had been no where they could've messed up. The portal could've mysteriously closed from the other side, with no chance of anyone ever finding out the cause. It was a possibility, since from the American's and Amestrian's point of view, there had been no cause for the portal. So what had pointed them to the Drachmans? They were in a dangerous situation, and well aware of it. They decided to tread carefully.

The message that had been sent was brief. Mustang had sent it without letting it pass through the generals, who were none to happy about that fact. They were even unhappier when they heard that the message had been "Why were two Amestrian civilians and four NCIS agents nearly killed in a bombing set by one of your own?"

The response had been quite long, but had summed down to this: the Drachmans wanted to have a meeting with the Amestrian Fuhrer and the American President. If the Amestrians could arrange that, the Drachman leader would be present to adress and explain the situation at hand.

For the Drachmans, this was a stalling manuever. They knew that the Amestrians would have to find a new portal to get through to the American leader. Otherwise, they would never find out what was going on. Only one other person had known on this side of the dimensions, and he wouldn't be talking. While that offer stood open it would be nearly impossible to start another war without the Amestrian people noting the similarity to the Ishval War, since for once the Amestrian government was actually listening to it's people (Did that have anything to do with Bradley and his people leaving office?).

For the Amestrians, this was a chance to take a breath, inform the generals about the situation as they knew it, let the NCIS agents solve the murder and see if it was related, and figure out a way to open the portal which they had been needing to do even if this hadn't occured.

For the Americans, the cavemen knew more about what was happening than they did.

Around the same time those wandering the streets of Dublith returned to the butcher shop, Mustang called down and explained what had happened. In response, they told them of their suspicions about Xerxes. The results of the conversation sent half the NCIS team, Izumi, and the Elrics over to see if they could find something in the ruins, and Mustang back over to talk with the generals about the new development.

McGee and Ziva continued to comb the streets for someone who knew about the murder that had occured. As of yet, all they knew was that he'd entered the town an hour before he was murdered, and in a rush. Only a couple of people had seen him.

* * *

><p>"Anything here that looks like a portal?" Gibbs asked, staying back with Dinozzo. They wouldn't be able to tell a small alchemy array from one complicated enough to move the sun across the universe and turn it into a Venus.**<p>

"Nothing yet. If you want to be helpful, please be quiet."

Dinozzo edged backward. Behind a nearby building, Ed cringed, and started to move toward a more secure part of the building that would be more reliable to protect him from the nuclear fallout about to occur. Al raised his eyebrows, but only twitched uncomfortably a bit rather than taking the measures Dinozzo and Ed were moving towards.

Gibbs crossed his arms, but didn't say anything. Izumi didn't react.

The other three, still preparing for a nuke to go off, slowly relaxed over the next ten minutes. Dinozzo knew that his boss had some serious respect for the housewife to not make a retort. Probably since she'd taught Ed and Al. He also knew that Gibbs was irritated from waiting for an hour and a half for something to show itself and not being able to do anything.

A bit later, and Al shouted, "Here!" Instantly, the other four swarmed closer. Inside the house that Al was in, all the walls had been knocked down, and the roof had rotted away. The array on the floor had clean space around it, showing recent care. It was just about the only thing in the city that did. All three alchemists were able to identify the array as one that could be successfully used for teleportation.

A clap rang through the room, and Izumi, Al, Dinozzo, and Gibbs instinctively stepped back. Ed tapped the array with both hands. Light flooded the room with the usual sound of the crackling energy. A second later, and a portal came into being inside the Xerxian house.

Ed looked up and grinned. "Who wants to go first?"

* * *

><p>Vance stared back at the CIA and FBI agents. He had expected Okerby*** and Lynch to try to take over the case. Why wouldn't they? It was about missing governmental agents involved in an incident that involved insideoutside the country. They'd probably had to come to the same truce they had before in advance to arriving there, which gave Vance no opportunity to try to turn that against them. In reality, the only chance he had of keeping the case would be if Gibbs decided to make one of his amazingly timed enterances. The only reason they were back is if they thought they might have some sort of leverage this time.

In the mean time, he'd have to spent the day wading in political crap.

...Or not. Someone knocked on the door. Lynch, the nearest, opened it at a nod from Vance. An agent standing outside, jerked a thumb behind him and stepped away from the doorway. Lynch stepped onto the level near the balcony, and moved aside so that Okerby and Vance could join him.

Agents Gibbs and Dinozzo were back. With them were the two Elric brothers, and someone else who Vance had never seen before. Gibbs was walking determinedly toward Vance's office, and met his gaze as he approached the stairs. Dinozzo was by his desk, both arms shaking above his head in a victorious gesture, seemingly oblivious to the fact that no one was paying the slightest bit of attention to him. Ed had claimed Gibbs's seat, Al sat at McGee's, and the woman was sitting at Ziva's.

Dinozzo slumped down in his seat, put his feet on his desk and his arms behind his head, and reveled in his return. Then, he dropped his feet, picked up his phone, and pressed a button. At hearing on how many voice messages he had, he quickly put the phone down, procrastinating again. He glanced at his computer, but quickly shrugged off even looking at it.

Gibbs reached the top of the steps. "What happened?" he asked, not bothering with any niceties.

"What are you doing here?" Okerby asked, surprised.

Gibbs ignored him, and continued to seek an answer to his question with his gaze. He crossed his arms.

"An amateur bomb. Whoever did it is lucky it even went off. Not many people were in the building at the time, and there's only ten bodies. We don't know why or who-" Vance began.

"We do," Gibbs interrupted. "The Drachmans were after Ed and Al. Mustang sent a message to them, which the Drachmans responded to with a request to settle this in a conversation between the Drachman leader, Mustang, and our president."

"Why our president? His position doesn't call for involvement in something like this," Vance said with a frown.

"The leaders in their time do. However, they've never heard his name or seen his face before. Anyone could fill in as our president," Gibbs pointed out.

Below, Dinozzo remembered a direction Gibbs had given him right before they'd gotten there, and picked up his phone and called the Curtis butcher shop to report that they'd succesfully gotten back, even though it had taken them a few days to travel to Xerxes and then travel from where they'd arrived to the NCIS building. Ed watched him for a second before a thought occured. He quickly stood, and started toward the elevator. Al followed him, wanting to do something other than sitting around.

Izumi raised an eyebrow after them. "Abby. She doesn't know that we're back yet." Ed glanced at his teacher. "Um, I think she wanted to meet you, too, but she never got the chance."

She stood as well, and followed her ex-apprentices. "Who is this?"

"She's their forensic scientist. We don't have the science to do this yet, but they can take DNA, blood, and traces of things and identify them. That's her job. She can also identify people by their picture or fingerprints. There's some other stuff she does too, but I don't know all of what she does. I was only here for a while," Ed explained. "We should probably also stop by Ducky and Palmer, but Abby'll probably tell them we're back anyway..."

The doors opened, and he led them out and down the hall. He opened the door, and they were greeted to loud music. Izumi glanced at Ed, who only briefly flinched to the loud sound, but then continued down the hall. She and Al exchanged a look, and then walked after him. Ed appeared to be about to walk into a pair of glass doors, but they opened a few steps before he would've reached them. He adjusted his path slightly, and walked up behind a black-clad girl typing at a computer. Al and Izumi were at the table nearest the glass door when Ed reached the scientist and shouted her name. No response. He shouted it again, louder, and waved his arms around, trying to get her attention. Finally, he waved one in her face.

She turned in surprise, and nearly tackled Ed. Abby tightly hugged him for a second, before grabbing the back of his shirt, and dragging him over to where the music was coming from. She tapped a button, and the music shut off. "What are you doing here? What was the bomb about? Who set it off? Has Gibbs caught him yet? What happened with the dead person? How long have you all been back? Hi, who are you two? Nice to meet you! Have they made any progress in the case they were sent over to investigate in the first place? Who knows that you're here? Have you seen the CIA and FB agents?"

"Do you want me to answer that chronologically, alphabetically, or what?" Ed dryly asked before she could ask anything else. She gave a one-shouldered shrug. "We've been back at the NCIS building for about five minutes, and we've been back at this planet for a day. Gibbs went up to talk to Okerby, Lynch, and Vance, and Dinozzo's at his desk unless he's moved. Maybe he's under it. Ziva and McGee are still in Amestris, investigating the murder. They didn't have much when we left. The bomb was set by the Drachmans-"

"I knew it!"

"-and Mustang's trying to talk to them right now. That's my brother Al, and my teacher, Izumi Curtis. Did I get everything?"

"Yeah." Abby let go of him, ignoring him for the time being, and hurried over to the two she hadn't met yet. She looked at Al first. "You two look exactly the same! Like twins! I would've thought you were if someone hadn't told me you had a year difference." Al was hugged a second later. Izumi followed him, to everyone's surprise. "And you're his teacher! He took out a bunch of the CIA and FBI's agents when he was over there. You taught him really well."

Izumi smiled. "I know."

"He was able to spar with Ziva without coming out of it with lasting injuries. We were are surprised about that."

"Kind of scary when I say that Al beats me every time we spar, huh?" Ed said, laughing.

"What?" Abby asked, turning to Al in surprise. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised. That's all that seems to surround you, Ed. More surprises. Maybe the next you know, you'll have a flock of ostriches." Abby turned to her computer. "Okay, focus. Case. Bomb. Okay, I'm good." She hurried over to it, and the other three went to join her. "The bomb was done by someone who didn't really know what they were doing, and probably just got it off the internet or something. Still, the bomb was able to kill twenty people and take down the whole building. That all makes sense since you said that it was a Drachman who made it. He wouldn't have had any experience. I can tell you where the bomb was made and what was in it, but I'm guessing I should wait for Gibbs before I do that."

"Here," Gibbs announced, appearing behind all of them. He dropped off a Caf-Pow! beside her computer. "What were you saying you found?"

"Gibbs!" Abby gave him a hug. "Ed said that everyone's okay?"

"Yup. Evidence?"

"Oh, yeah. Okay, so I found out that..."

Ed pointed to the door, catching the attention of the other two who had come down with him. He was about to slip out, before Gibbs threw over his shoulder, "Go see if Ducky has anything."

"Alright, alright... No rest for the wicked..."

"You've been around Dinozzo for too long," Abby noted. "Tell Ducky and Jimmy I said hi!"

"Sure."

A minute later, and they arrived outside the autopsy room. "Is this the same as what they have back in Amestris?" Izumi asked.

"Basically, yeah." Ed shrugged. "They examine the dead bodies for anything to help Abby, and they look for the cause of death." The doors opened in front of them again. "Hey!" Ed waved a hand in acknowledgement to the two hunched over a body. Ducky and Palmer looked up, and Ducky waved a scalpel back at Ed.

"My dear lad! So you all made it back alright?" Ducky asked.

"Yup. Well, most of us. Ziva and McGee are still investigating in Amestris. Ducky, this is Al, my brother, and Izumi Curtis, my teacher. That's Jimmy Palmer," Ed siad, introducing everyone to each other. "Abby says hi."

Ducky walked over, and stopped a few paces away. He gestured slightly sheepishly at himself. "Well, usually I would shake your hand, but I think that we should pass on that in this case, unless you want blood all over you... And has anyone told you that you look almost exactly like your brother?" The last one was directed at Al.

"You mean, everyone?"

"Yes, them. Now, I'm assuming that as much as you wanted to see us dissecting dead bodies-" the sarcasm came in clearly, "-you're not here for that. Jethro sent you to see if I have anything new or out of the ordinary?"

"Yup," Ed replied.

"All of our bombing victims seem to be normal, and none of them are, ah, other-wordly, shall we say? Your side has a slightly different DNA type, having adapted just a little bit differently over the years than ours on this side did. I don't see any of that DNA. Although, I did turn up some new things with another body, but I hardly think Jethro will be intrested in it since it's not his case."

"Since I'm apparently a messenger now, do you want me to run a message up to them?" Ed asked, sighing. When had he become these people's personal slave? Somehow, he'd ended up in this position. Maybe it had happened when he'd had the amnesia. Yeah, that was probably it. That was the only good thing about having had it. He could blame just about anything that had happened before or after he'd had memory loss on the amnesia. 'Just about anything' did not include accidentally causing a malfunction in his automail, and using such an excuse would immediately result in a temporary concussion via a wrench that was probably bloodstained.

"Would you? Agent Kalton has some information on his case." Ducky gave some instructions on how to find him, and then turned back to the corpse. By now, Al and Izumi had quietly slipped back up to the office area. Ed was used to the dead bodies from the time he'd spent in the NCIS building, but dead bodies didn't appeal to the other two for whatever reason. Ed quickly followed them before Ducky could reminsce.

After dropping the message off, he returned to the main area, finding Gibbs's seat. Gibbs had disappeared inside Vance's office along with the other three he'd been talking to. Dinozzo was tentatively beginning to go through his massive amounts of messages on his computer and phone. He finally gave up, and moved onto something more fun on his computer.

"So, this is where you stayed when you had amnesia?" Izumi asked absently, looking around the wide space.

"Yeah. I followed them around on the case they found me on to see if any of them would recognize me." Ed spread his hands. "Obviously, that didn't help. At the end of the case, the FBI and CIA showed up, and snapped at each other a bit to see who would get to interrogate me. Many hours later-"

"Which is sadly not an exaggeration," Dinozzo put in. Ed ignored him.

"-and they came to a truce. Gibbs dragged my butt out of there a bit later, since they'd gotten nothing. I spent another case with them, and then the portal popped up. While we were trying to pull together what had happened, Al and some others came over for diplomatic reasons. Mustang more or less tossed my ass out of CIA and FBI custody, and Al and I went home. My arm returned a bit later, and my memories came back on their own," Ed finished. "So I mostly stayed here, but I also was with the FBI and CIA a bit. There's probably an imprint underneath this desk, since I took up residence under it when I needed to sleep."

"In our defense, we all offered to let him stay at any of our places. He didn't want to," Dinozzo said quickly when Izumi shot a glare at him.

"If we're done here," Gibbs said, walking up to them, "we've got somewhere to be."

"Back to Amestris, Boss?" Dinozzo asked, already following. The other three were only a second's pause behind.

"Where else?"

* * *

><p>*I wanted to use Dr. Knox, but I'd forgotten that he was no longer a coroner. He works on the living with his son now. Hands in the air, who else forgot that? Come on, don't make me feel unobservant now.<p>

**a dead planet.

***I don't like this OC. Maybe I can kill him off... With blood and mayhem and violence and DINOSAURS (yes, that is another _Firefly _reference. Maybe I should jsut do a Firefly story sometimes soon. But they have a spaceship, which makes things a bit harder. How do you incorporate a SPACESHIP?)


	5. The Battle of the Snipers

a/n: Thanks to **Writer With Sprite** and **rainstripe** for helping me out! Thank you both for the ideas! Speaking of whom, those two are the reason why this chapter's out. I had no ideas whatsoever, and they kicked my butt (and brain, if I can find it) back into gear.

About the chapter: It's going to be confusing. Trust me, it will be. One scene is going to be replayed twice, and another is going to be before it happened, but written after the part. Also, the point of view in the last section is going to jump around a lot.

Anyway, new chapter. Obviously. Don't own NCIS or FMA.

* * *

><p>Ziva and McGee sat around the table sprawled with notes in the Curtis house. The notes were theirs, all about the crime scene and the Drachmans. Mostly, they'd been left to their own devices, Mason and Sig being busy running the store. "So, as far as we can tell, he was killed by the Drachmans," Ziva said. "One was reported being seen in the city, and he was seen heading this way. For once, we might have a clean sliced case."<p>

"Until we find out the real reason behind the Drachman's intentions," McGee said, choosing to ignore her mistake. The look Ziva gave him said speaking was not a good idea on his part.

She relented, and sighed, realizing he was probably right. "What could they be planning? It should have been obvious that we would trace things back to them."

"Unless someone promised to cover for them, and didn't," McGee jumped in. "That would explain a few things."

"That it would. Anything else you two have gotten?"

"Boss! Did it work?" Ziva asked, jumping to her feet along with McGee as Gibbs strode into the room, followed by Dinozzo*, the Elric brothers, Izumi, and... Vance?

"Obviously." He gestured to the papers. "What about the Drachmans?"

"Well, we think they have an ally," McGee said. "Someone we don't know about."

"Fun, fun," Ed muttered. "The more the merrier."

* * *

><p>The meeting was arranged, and the Drachman leader, Rigar Vunsen**, showed up in Amestris as planned. Mustang and Vance (the 'American President') entered the conference room before Vunsen did, and chose two seats. If anyone had taken notice, they would've seen that neither had their backs directly to a window. Vance had the most protected spot in the room with Mustang's in second, and only because he had to turn his head to face one of the windows. The room had two walls with windows, leading this room to be the least used conference room. However, it was the only one available. Due to various mishaps or just simple occurances, it had been rendered last, least, and only. The one thing that soothed the nerves of the two with being in clear range of snipers was that they each had at least one trusted team watching their backs from outside.<p>

Vunsen entered soon after, and they quickly finished with formalities. It was clear that Vunsen was as unhappy with the room choice as the others were. "My apologies on the windows," Mustang said. "But the other conference rooms are currently unusable, unless we want to sit in rooms about to fall apart or have water lapping at our feet."

Vunsen seemed to accept this, and the meeting started to move on. However, before anyone else could speak, the door opened.

Ed stepped in, and didn't seem to be happy about it. His gaze flickered between all three of them before settling on Mustang. "I got sent in here by unanimous decision from your office, since everyone else was apparently 'doing paperwork'. I didn't know that included fixing a coffee machine, but whatever floats their boat, I guess."

"There a point to this, Fullmetal?" Mustang asked.

Ed's eye twitched at the name use, which had been redundant for a while. Then he sighed, glanced at Vunsen, and requested to take the conversation outside. The suspicious look on Vunsen's face forced Mustang to make a denial. "Fine," Ed said, adjusting. Their loss. "A rebel Xingese group were the supporters. Ling dropped in-literally-and explained the situation. His government is searching the group out now, but it seems like all of them evacuated here. In summary, all of you might want to move to a different location."

"Why?" Vunsen asked, clearly perturbed about this.

"Simple. Do you really think that the Xingese group would be all to happy about you ratting them out? No, I didn't think so. So you might want to get out of range of any windows."

Before any in the room could speak, Hell came up out of the ground, dropped a cannon of shit in that room, and ran away snickering like a schoolboy who had just done something naughty but wouldn't be caught because the teachers were all too busy cleaning up his mess to scold him.

Two gun shots went off, one right after another.

Mustang ducked after the first one.

Vensen skidded off his chair and went under the table.

Vance did a ninja role across the table in a move that would have made even the supposed ninjas he learned it from envious.

Ed dropped like a stone after the second shot, a fine blood mist hissing through the air around his head.

* * *

><p><em>{ten minutes before Ed entered the conference room}<em>

Al, Ed, Havoc, McGee, and Fuery were the only ones left in the Fuhrer's office. The rest of the two teams had been sent out onto the streets, checking for anyone who might be taking a shot at the three leaders. Or 'leader' in Vance's case. The Drachmans had yet to uncover that ploy.

Those who had been left behind were left behind because they either were A) a techie, and didn't shoot people as often as the others did (Fuery, McGee), B) going to be answering the phones (Havoc***), or C) didn't want to be involved in the first place (Ed, Al). Now, they were waiting for the meeting to end and for their comrades to return.

They were not, on the other hand, waiting for the window to open and for the leader of Xing and his bodyguard to pop in, although that's what happened before the rest did.

"The he- Ling? We have a _door_, you know!" Havoc pointed out. "Whatcha doing here, kid?" Other than the one comment, he seemed to brush off the window thing quite easily.

" 'Kid'? 'Kid'? Did you really just call me 'kid'?" Ling asked, his voice irritable, but his face smiling. "I'm leading a country now!"

"So we noticed," Ed replied, also grinning. "What brings you to our humble country in comparison?" Sarcasm was imbedded in his tone.

McGee, unlike the others, did not recognize the Xingese. "Hold on, didn't anyone see you climb up the wall?"

"No," Ling answered bluntly. "You'd be surprised how little people look up. Have we met before?"

"From second hand accounts, I believe you two were involved in a conversation with Dinozzo about pizza," Ed said. "Now do you remember each other?" He said the last sentence even as the two nodded their heads in recognition. "Now, back to my question. You hauled your butt over here and climbed up the wall for what reason? And if you say you were just dropping in, I'm going to smack you."

"We were just dropping in."

Ed started to rise from his seat threateningly.

Ling made a motion with his hands for Ed to sit, a silly grin on his face. "No, that's not why we're here, although I would wish it were that simple." He dropped the smile, becoming serious. "Heard you and your friends at NCIS got caught in a building that blew up."

"You came all this way to check up on us?" Al asked, cocking his head, but from his tone he didn't believe it.

"No, although again, I wish that were it. Did any of you think that there might be a supporting group that was backing the Drachmans? I mean, they made a bold move attacking Ed before, and it wouldn't have been wise to try something like that again. Especially not so soon," the young Xingese leader said. He seemed a bit uncomfortable.

"Yeah. Actually, we were talking about that right before we came back to Central," Al replied, nodding.

Ling shifted. "Well, did you find out for sure who it was?"

"No, but Mustang and the... ah... 'American President' are in a conference room talking to him right now. We think he's going to fess up on whoever it was," Havoc said, smiling as he mentioned their actor.

Ling shifted again.

"Ling...?" Ed asked with an incredulous tone and look.

"It wasn't us!" Ling quickly said, having noticed what Ed had assumed. "Well, it sort of was, but I didn't have anything to do with it. A small group of people who weren't happy about the clans being joined decided to take it out on someone. They're a small enough group that they couldn't do anything directly, but they were able to convince the Drachmans that they were a legitimate group that would be able to back them up and prevent anything from being traced back to Drachma if they decided to make a move on the Amestrians."

"The Amestrians?" McGee frowned.

"Yeah. The two countries are allies, and attacking Xing would've caused more harm than good to their cause. If the clans were divided, they wouldn't have been able to stand an assault against the Drachmans. With the Amestrians as allies and a joined military force in Xing, we would've been able to win a war against the Drachmans. Also by attacking Amestrians, a major supplier would've been gone for food and supplies. Between the rebel group and the Drachmans, the whole plan was to bring Amestris down," Ling explained.

"Because that would've crumbled the Xingese government with their supplier and main ally gone," Ed added on. "If Amestris was out of the picture, the Xingese people would've been frantic about seeing if their country was next. For a new country, there are so many things that could and would go wrong that the new government would fall as quickly as it had started. Especially an inexperienced one."

"Exactly," Ling said.

The others exchanged glances.

"Ed's going in to explain the situation to Mustang and Vance. In the mean time, do you want some coffee?" Havoc pointed towards their newly fixed coffee machine. He'd bounced back from the whole scenario quite quickly but then, it was Havoc. He bounced back from just about anything quickly.

"Wait a second," Fuery and Ed both said at the same time. They glanced at each other, surprised. Ed motioned for Fuery to continue. "Shouldn't we send a message to the teams we have out, then?" His fingers were already poised to send a message.

"Sure, go ahead." Havoc shrugged. "Tell them to keep on a lookout for Xingese as well as Drachmans." Fuery began sending a message to the Amestrians, and McGee sent texts to Ziva, Dinozzo, and Gibbs. While they had been able to pull up transmitters for all those in the field so they could communicate, they hadn't had the time to pull up enough cell phones and then teach the Amestrians how to use them.****

Ling cocked his head, and frowned in confusion. "Drachmans?"

"We think they might try to take out Mustang. It'll give them time to explain themselves, and all the better for them if they can point it at someone else," McGee explained. "If they can manage that, their leader will simply be an innocent bystander." Ling nodded, understanding.

"Ed, shouldn't you be gone?" Al asked pointedly at his brother.

"What? Wait a second, why should I go? Did anyone see me volunteer? No? Good, 'cause I didn't." Ed crossed his arms stubbornly.

"I did."

"Shut up, Ling."

"I don't know, I was pretty sure I saw him volunteer. Don't you think so?" Havoc grinned, and turned to Fuery, who wasn't paying attention in the slightest.

"Huh? Yeah, sure..." he said without meaning it or knowing what he was agreeing to.

"You volunteered, Nii-san," Al said, smiling mischeviously.

"Al! Even you're against me? Look, can't Lan Fan go?" his elder brother dodged.

"Why would I go?" she asked, annoyed. She'd never really liked the alchemist anyway, even if she was thankful for him dragging her leader's butt out of several big messed he'd managed to get himself into.

"Exactly! You're as likely to go as I am!"

"Just get going," Havoc said.

"Don't order me-" Ed began his rant.

Ten minutes later, and he was finally shoved out of the office and sent in the direction of the conference room.

"Is there anyway for them to get shot at from where they are?" Ling asked, confused that the teams weren't in the building.

"Yup, four windows," Havoc said. "We've got several other conference rooms, but we've got construction going on in one wing, which took out all of them there. Another was eliminated, what with it being flooded, along with the rest of that floor. A toilet exploded from a prank someone pulled. And the last few had a fire, which was, ahem, _not_ lit by Mustang because he, ah, tried to burn his paperwork. However, I'll point out that we had a significant decrease of paperwork that week, but we also had a significant increase of Hawkeye nagging Mustang."

* * *

><p><em>{a bit before the shots}<em>

The two teams were split up around the city. Pairs were scattered around, managing to cover all points where someone could shoot at Central from. Gibbs and Hawkeye had taken up sniping positions, and Dinozzo and Ziva backed up Gibbs by remaining in the same building in case someone tried to enter. Falman and Breda did the same for Hawkeye. Brosh and Ross walked around the buildings, checking windows from ground level to see if anyone was in them with a sniping rifle other than Hawkeye and Gibbs. While a group of Drachmans had been found and was being watched in case they were there other than to "drink beer and be happy", as they had said, no one else had been spotted.

As the time approached the meeting, tension began to rise. Other than a short message sent out that the Strong Arm Alchemist was also on the lookout nearby for any attackers, nothing had occurred. Then, five minutes before the conference, another was sent alerting them that any Xingese (other than Ling and Lan Fan, of course) were also to be watched for.

Then it happened.

One shot went off from somewhere in the area, going through a window in the conference room. It barely missed Vunsen. Using common sense, Mustang threw his head down, ducking under the second bullet. The move saved his life. The second shot had come from an entirely different direction, going through a different window at a different wall. The second sniper, it seemed, had been startled by the other, and fired before his target could move. However, both shots had missed their targets, but both had also hit a point that both lines of fire crossed: Ed.

A gunshot was fired from the building, and the sound of shattering glass came after. Vance had fired straight at the window, breaking the weakened glass since the sniper bullet hadn't destroyed it, and then adjusted his aim and shot at the first sniper he spotted. While he missed, that sniper's position was flashed to Gibbs. A minute later, and Vance wisely pulled back from the window, no longer as helpful.

As soon as the shots went off, Hawkeye and Gibbs searched the nearby buildings for any other shooters. They relooked at spots they'd already searched with their scopes, since it seemed like the opposers had been smart enough to not line up their shots until a minute before they shot. Luckily, Gibbs caught sight of a sniper within seconds from Vance's help. He sent the directions of the building through his transmitter, and Brosh and Ross jaywalked to move towards the building. They split as Hawkeye sent off her own directions when she got another. Gibbs fired on his, barely missing. Hawkeye almost fired on her own before a shot grazing her arm made her pull back immediately.

Looking out a window, Falman scanned the buildings with a view of the one he was in, and found a Xingese sniper across the street. He sent a message to the others of the coordinates in case they had time to back him up, and left to take out the new one. Breda stayed behind, and he and Hawkeye moved their position.

A brief lull occurred in the shooting, due to all the snipers shuffling around. None of them wanted to get taken out before they could take another shot. The shooter who had tried to take out Mustang was still in his own position, and increasingly confused as to what was going on. All he'd heard was other shots coming from buildings around him. Ross took this to her advantage, and shot him down before he could react.

Falman's and Brosh's targets had both disappeared from the radar, and the two began searching the floors near where their targets had been seen. Falman's reappeared, and Gibbs sniped him down before he could reach him. Another shot was taken at Gibbs, and the NCIS agent readjusted again.

Ziva hit the street as another was spotted nearby. Shortly before entering the buiding, she dodged around the corner as a bullet narrowly avoided her head. Ross across the road to take care of that sniper. She pulled back, however, as Hawkeye dropped him. Ziva went through a backdoor into the building.

Brosh opened a door quickly, and unintentionally knocked his target out. Shrugging with a bemused look, he found something to tie up his target up.

Breda and Dinozzo faced the same problem within minutes of each other. The joined Amestrian/American force had made sure that their snipers had had backup, and the Xingese and Drachmans had done likewise. Two Drachmans tried to storm Hawkeye's building, and Breda picked them both off in the stairwell. Four Xingese had tried the same with Gibbs, and Ziva returned from her search to take two down. Using that distraction, Dinozzo took out the rest.

They joined Gibbs in storming Ziva's original target, and took another Drachman down. They stole his post, since he wouldn't be needing it.

Another lull. No one seemed willing to fire first and give away their position. It was decided for them when one of the buildings imploded, and alchemical reactions went off from inside. Armstrong had entered the fray, and the Drachman support had evaporated. There went the beer.

Hawkeye reported another Xingese sniper. However, before she could fire and anyone could go after him, he went down. She raised her eye from the rifle. "Gibbs? Was that you?"

"No."

She and Breda exchanged a confused glance.

"It looks like they're fighting amongst themselves," Dinozzo remarked.

"Yes. There was a short skirmish between a Xingese and Drachman outside my building," Ross agreed. The Xingese had taken down the other, and had been about to move on when Ross had taken her out from above. She'd never thought to look up, proving Ling's point without meaning to.

"Or they were never together to begin with," Gibbs said.

"He's right," Falman said. "The Drachmans were going for Mustang, and the Xingese didn't want Vunsen speaking. That's how it seems now, anyway. We're the only joined force here."

* * *

><p>*Bit late in the game, but is is Dinozzo or DiNozzo?<p>

**, who later became the next Dracula (kidding). But doesn't his name sound like that?

***Since the point of this fic is apparently to remind you of things that happened in FMA but went unnoticed, Havoc sort of returned to duty. They showed a picture of him at the end doing physical therapy for his legs. While he wouldn't heal extremely quickly, he'd be able to do things in the military like paperwork. While I'm sure none of us can really see him doing that all day, that'd be all he could do until his legs were working properly again. I'm sure we could get into a debate about him shooting, but if he was shooting anyone, he'd probably need to use his legs after or before shooting them.

**** I'm a teenage girl and I still can't work those damn things.

Epic sniper battle! That was all because **rainstripe** suggested a sniper (which I turned into snipers), and **Writer With Sprite** suggested bringing in another character. Thank you again! This wouldn't have been possible without you!

Now, wouldn't you expect bullet proof glass in a conference room in a building like that? Yup. Was it around then? I don't know, it's a parallel. Also, that conference room was rarely used. It wasn't expected to be hosting something like this.


	6. Collateral Damage

a/n: Long break in between the last two, and a shorter break between the last and this one? Yup. Why? Well, I was in the mood, so this one was typed shortly after the last. Like, within about, oh, five minutes. Do you care? Probably not, as long as it's up.

So here you go. I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist, or NCIS. I own my OC's, but I misplaced those two idiots. Good riddance, eh?

* * *

><p>After he felt the brief breeze from the bullet pass over his head, Mustang had slid off the chair. As he'd slipped into a crouch the floor, he saw Vance do an epic roll across the table that was movie-worthy. Across the room, Vunsen was lying flat on the floor and had abandoned his dignity with his face in the carpet. Vance's literally explosive action at the window drew his attention, and he saw him fire at one of the shooters. Outside, multiple shots were going off. It seemed like the confusion out there rivaled the confusion in the minds of those in the room, even though Ed <em>had <em>warned them it would happen.

Ed.

Mustang snapped his gaze to his ex-subordinate, and immediately began crawling over to him. Ed had dropped to his knees on the floor, one bullet having cut through his cheek without causing permanent damage, and the other having slammed to a halt in his shoulder. One hand was gripping his shoulder, and he didn't seem to notice the head wound despite its profuse bleeding. That was the annoying thing about head wounds, no matter how small: they always bled in a ridiculous amount. If it wasn't, then it shouldn't have even been called a wound.

"Ed," the Fuhrer said quietly. Vance didn't take notice, and Vunsen was probably having trouble hearing anything in that position. The blond flicked his gaze from his shoulder to Mustang. "You okay?"

"Had worse. What the hell's going on out there?" He gestured with his head towards the window. "It sounds like we've got more than a few snipers."

"It does." Both directed their attention towards the destroyed window. "You'd think they were having a war out there. Come on, we should probably get out of here. While we probably can't join the fight since we have no idea what's going on and will most likely get our heads shot off, our heads might not stay on long if we hang around in here any longer."

Ed nodded, and dropped the hand at his shoulder. Mustang moved ahead of him and opened the door. The alchemists rose to their feet, quickly exiting the room. Vance lowered his gun, and was next to them within seconds. The three glanced back at each other, and then at Vunsen. Without speaking, they all asked the same question: "Should we pull him out?" Then they all glanced at each other again: "He's fine where he is."

Vunsen finally left the room about ten minutes later, deciding that the gun fire would probably take a while to end. Besides, attention had been redirected from the room. Vunsen was seen leaving the area another ten minutes later, and then not again in Amestris. He returned to Drachma without bothering to announce his departure.

Moving swiftly through the hallways, they did a quick report. Vance had seen a lot of movement, and had been unable to determine the number of snipers other than 'more than six'. Also, civilians and soldiers had evacuated to a safer area free of people with guns or to receive orders.

Ed had shrugged off Mustang's request to throw something on the shoulder wound, saying that they'd be able to do something about it soon. Neither the Fuhrer nor the NCIS director had had it in them to ask how bad it was, since the ex-State Alchemist would obviously lie.

Mustang was able to point out several things, such as the shooters' possible identities (Drachmans shooting at Mustang and Xingese shooting at Vunsen), and mentioned that the other shooters were most likely backup from all three parties. After all, they'd had quite a lot of people on the street for a possible shooting, and the Drachmans and Xingese had known that there would be a shooting and that the military would most likely be after them.

He also mentioned-even if it was more to himself than to Ed and Vance-that this would be hell for directing orders. The building was full of a lot of people with guns who knew how to use them. There were people with guns outside. The first instinct would obviously be to kill something, and getting everyone to stand down wouldn't be fun.

They arrived at the door, and pushed it open. Immediately, all six people in the room jumped up, albeit a little unsteadily in Havoc's case. They'd heard the gunshots, yes, but the thought that either someone was already dead or everyone was alive and heading down to that room was quickly passed around. They'd stayed where they were, but the sight of three pissed off people, including one who had blood running from two different spots, made them all react.

"What the hell's going on out there?" Ling asked while gesturing towards the window they'd entered through.

Mustang chose not to ask why the window was open. "I'd say that we've got a sniper battle, which is a first for me. Other than that, your guess is as good as mine."

Fuery was the first to notice the one missing. "Is Vunsen dead?"

"Ah, no. We sort of left him."

Havoc chuckled, slightly evilly.

"Okay, so what do we do now? Find out how they got into the buildings to gain sniping positions?" McGee asked. "And do you have any bandages lying around?"

Fuery and Havoc rose from their seats, and started scrounging up some that were lying around the room in the weirdest of places. No one would ever know what that one bandage was doing under Hawkeye's desk except Hayate.

As they began wrapping Ed's shoulder, Fuery asked how it was that Ed got shot twice. The oldest Elric shrugged one shoulder, the unhurt one, in response.

"Bad luck?" Havoc suggested.

"That's what it seemed like to me," Mustang agreed. "Just sheer bad luck."

"I don't know," Edward irritably said, "but next time, someone else is going to the conference room to tell the people there's going to be some snipers." The ones who had voted him to the mentioned room exchanged glances, shrugged, and moved on with life. Obviously, none of them felt bad in the slightest about sending Ed. Someone else would've been shot if he hadn't gone, and he wasn't complaining.

Al patted the back of his head, and Ed flicked a ticked glance his brother's way. "Don't worry, Nii-san. Next time, we'll send you in with that Kevlar stuff they invented on the other side."

The others in the room laughed, and the response was louder to compensate for that. "How about I just don't go at all?"

"Where would be the fun in that?" Mustang pointed out. "This way, you'll finally have a good reason to be complaining."

"A 'good reason to be complaining'? I've got several, thank you very much!"

* * *

><p>"Looks like the Xingese support has at least five people left," Ross reported. She'd slipped around to the back of the buildings to look for anyone trying to sneak around the buildings for another angle. An unconscious Xingese now lay at her feet, and Brosh was coming down to tie him up. She'd taken out the last in a group of six, leaving the other five to go wherever they'd be planning to go.<p>

"Four," Ziva corrected as she took out another.

"Three." Hawkeye continued the countdown with a shot of her own.

"Two." Brosh fired as he moved towards Ross's location.

"One," Gibbs said even as he pulled the trigger. "Who does that leave?"

"We've got two unconscious people, each from one side," Brosh reported. "We're moving the second to the same position as the first. Ross and I will watch them unless you need us, so that takes them out."

"There's at least two more snipers, based on the glimpses we've seen. One's Xingese, the other's Drachman," Hawkeye said. "Someone needs to head down to alert Armstrong, in case one of them tries to kill him."

"Got it," Falman said, moving towards the imploded building. "Jeez, what did that building ever do to him..."

"Ground support's completely down, as far as we can tell." Breda continued with the report. "If there's any left, it's not much. Other than us, of course."

"Last positions on the snipers?" Hawkeye asked, sharing command of the group with Gibbs.

"One in the building on the right of us," Dinozzo said. "Moved too quickly to get a floor-"

"Fifth," Ross interrupted. "Fifth floor."

"-other than the fifth floor," Dinozzo amended.

"The other was last spotted in the fourth floor of the building to the left of my last position," Falman said, not even pausing as he crossed the distance to Armstrong.

"Who's with who, and where?" Gibbs asked at the same time Falman adjusted his transmitter. Hushed voices came from the Amestrian's end as he spoke to Armstrong, explaining the report. The others gave him a minute, and when the voices stopped they continued.

"Brosh and I are two buildings away from the imploded one, where Armstrong and Falman are," Ross said. Falman gave a short affirmative.

"Breda and I are next to you, Gibbs. We're on your right," Hawkeye reported.

"And Dinozzo, Gibbs, and I are in the building that the Xingese used to shoot at the Drachman," Ziva concluded.

"Is there anyone who needs medical attention?" Hawkeye asked.

No one spoke up.

"Should we fire a random shot at one of you to gain attention?" Brosh asked, seeking a way to force the fight out of the stalemate.

"Move to a different building than your current position, and then continue," Hawkeye said, before seeking permission from the other in charge. "Gibbs?"

"I'm fine with that as long as he doesn't actually shoot us."

Two minutes later, and Brosh fired at Gibbs, the nearest. The shot had the desired effect. The Xingese shot at him, and Brosh ducked back down undercover. Hawkeye and Gibbs fired simultaneously, and both hit their target. The sniper disappeared from view.

Falman and Armstrong were about to move from building to building before a bullet passed right in front of them. Breda peeked his head out of the window, and fired at the sniper from nearly point blank range. Sheer chance had led the Drachman to a position right next to Hawkeye's.

Five minutes passed of silence.

"That it?" Dinozzo asked.

* * *

><p>Two hours after the first shot was fired, and the sniper battle was finally over.<p>

Hawkeye had departed for a minute from the returning group to send out another group to do a body clean up, and to pick up the two tied up and unconscious people. The combined Amestrian and American group opened the door to the Fuhrer's office, making a triumphant return.

Their welcoming party could've been better. Out of the eight people in there, only three of them acknowledged them. Vance gave them an appreciative nod, Havoc waved, and Fuery glanced up and saluted.

The others were busy fussing over their brother who was getting their shoulder treated, trying to mend the shoulder, sending out orders to the rest of the military about the occuring events, or sleeping.

"That was the worst 'welcome back' I've ever received," Dinozzo remarked, finding a chair and sitting in it.

"What happened?" Ziva asked, looking over McGee's shoulder as he attempted to patch up Ed's shoulder. "How'd you get hit?"

"I was apparently standing in the exact spot where both shots intercepted," Ed grumbled. "So of course, I got hit by both."

"Because he lacked the common sense to get down after the first one," Mustang added, bringing the speaking part of the phone away from his mouth. He moved it back, and continued with what he was saying to a general. Any truce of flying insults that the two alchemists had had during the gunfire had long since deteriorated.

"Say that again!"

"What's he doing here?" Falman asked, jerking a thumb at Ling as he passed the sleeping leader.

"Sleeping," Havoc said. "His body guard's on the roof."

"I think he meant why," Armstrong asked.

"He was the one who delivered the news about the rebels," Al explained.

"Apparently the Xingese are not advanced enough to use phones," Ed threw in, and his brother rolled his eyes in response.

Dinozzo took another look at the work his friend was doing on the oldest Elric's shoulder, winced, and then decided to spare the alchemist some pity and said, "McGeek, can you please let the kid's shoulder-"

"What did you call me!"

"-be, and go find a doctor?"

"I'll see if Dr. Knox can come look at him," Hawkeye said, walking around to her desk and picking up her phone. While she made the call, the others continued with their conversation.

Vance held out his hand to Armstrong. Around them, Mustang's subordinates were taking seats behind their desk, and the rest were finding places on the floor or wall to sit or lean on. "I'm from NCIS. Leon Vance."

Armstrong shook it. For Vance's benefit, he didn't wince. "The Strong Arm Alchemist, Louis Armstrong." While Vance would never know, he was lucky that he didn't get a full briefing on the the Armstrong family, Armstrong's muscles, or both.

Mustang finished with one of his calls at around the same time Hawkeye finished with hers. "Do I need to send anyone out for clean up, or did you already take care of all that unpleasantness?" Before he finished the sentence, she was already nodding. "Hm. Okay, then... I think we've just about covered everything."

"Didn't he mention something about finding out how the other snipers got into position?" The 'sleeping' guy pointed at McGee without opening his eyes. He barely avoided poking Ziva, which was a good thing for him even if he didn't know it.

"Ah, that. We can do that later. Besides, I think we already know out." Mustang shrugged it off.

"Oh, yeah..." Ling nodded slightly as he remembered.

The Americans gave them blank expressions.

Ed grinned. "Remember that whole rebellion thing I mentioned? Well, we learned quite a few things about flaws in Central, and not all of them were cleared up. We're still getting around to all that, if I'm not mistaken."

"You're not." Havoc shrugged. "Frankly, it takes so damn long to get one thing done around here that it's sort of ridiculous. But whatever, one step at a time, I guess."

Knox came in, took one look around the room, and rolled his eyes. He ignored the Americans, and said rhetorically, "Why do I get stuck treating you idiots every single time?"

"Maybe because we're so irresistible?" Mustang suggested easily. "Besides, do you have to include all of us in that? What did I do?"

"You probably got everyone else involved," Knox shot back just as swiftly. There were several nods from the Mustang's subordinates, and Ed gave a confirming snort. Mustang shot the doctor a look of betrayal, and mocked a wound to the chest. "Now, why is everyone bleeding all over your..." Knox glanced down at the carpet, which was covered in stacks of paper, several burn holes, coffee stains, and other stuff yet to be identified, "...beautiful floor?"

Mustang looked down at their 'beautiful floor', and then up at Knox. "Snipers."

Knox gave a nod with an expression that said he would have believed Mustang more if he'd said that an elephant had come into the room and thrown crap at everyone, and then thrown up a tiger that scratched everyone and then jumped out the window (the window repaired itself).

"Seriously!"

"For once, his excuse his honest." Hawkeye relented, and gave Mustang a break from the doctor. "A sniper tried to shoot at the Drachman leader and the Fuhrer."

"And both shots managed to hit the kid?" Knox asked doubtfully, although his belief had grown since Hawkeye was supporting the new theory.

"Why is everyone calling me a shorty, beansprout, pipsqueak? I'll hit you all!"

Dinozzo shrugged. "He managed it. Somehow."

Know turned to the Americans. "Do I have qualification to know who all of you are?" he asked of the NCIS agents, disdain for the system he worked in obvious in his tone and word choice.

"Uh, I don't see why not..." McGee asked.

Cheer added to his voice, Knox then turned his attention to reprimanding nearly everyone in the room. "You-" McGee "-need serious lessons in the medical field if you ever plan to wrap a bullet wound ever again. That dressing is hopeless. I'm surprised it's not falling apart. And you-" Ling "-need to find a better place to sleep if you don't want back problems later in life. And where's your girl friend?" Several people pointed up. "She died?"

"Roof!"

"Oh, okay."

"Wait a second, we're not dating!" Ling protested, shooting forward in his seat to perch on the edge of it.

"Didn't mean it like that. Now, what were you doing standing in a room with two sniper targets?" Knox asked of Ed, whose wound he was now mending after having shoved the techie out of the way. "I know you took on several immortal beings-sometimes a few at the same time- but really! I thought you had more sense than that."

"I didn't realize the snipers would stupidly mistake me for them!" the young one* retorted.

"Whatever, don't do it again. You and Mustang both attract trouble. Putting you in the same room practically _forced_ the snipers to shoot you." To prove his point jokingly, he mock ducked under invisible fire. "What? I'm shocked. I thought that that was bound to jinx someone into opening fire."

"Anyone else you're going to snap at?" Mustang asked with his arms crossed and a raised eyebrow.

"Sure. I can continue with-"

"Can you please pay more attention to what you're doing to arm!" Ed drew the doctor's attention back to his shoulder.

"Right, about that. You're going to need more than a band-aid."

"No, really!"

"Shut up. You're going to need surgery to pull the bullet out."

"Are you freaking kidding me?"

"If, on the other hand, you want that to get infected, cause later problems with your arm, and maybe later have an amputation, we can just let it sit tight." Dr. Knox shrugged. "Your choice. Actually, from the looks everyone's giving you, I think it might not be your choice."

"Why the hell are you all looking at me like that?" Ed snapped, although he'd already resigned himself to the surgery.

Mustang turned from the alchemist to the doctor. "How fast could he have it done?"

"Hey!"

"Now, if he wanted."

"Yes, he'll go," Al said, nodding.

"You all do realize that it's my friggin' arm, right?"

Everyone ignored him.

* * *

><p>an: *_Cover your heads, everyone_!

Tsuki and I had a ten minute debate on whether or not Mustang would either immediately protect Vunsen, seeing as how he was a guest of the country and they were trying to keep peace (Tsuki), or if he would think 'screw Vunsen', and immediately protect Ed, seeing as how Ed had once been a subordinate of his and they knew each other. I came to a truce in here, and had Mustang assess the situation before moving towards Ed. As for the whole ditching Vunsen thing, well, I couldn't resist. Besides, they all had arrived to the conclusion that it was a Drachman that had probably shot at Mustang (and then hit Ed).


	7. Valium and Other Excuses

a/n: Yay, I keep getting more and more ideas! Woohoo! I'm on a roll!

But, also, bad news. D-Do you remember h-how I m-mentioned a while b-back that-t s-s-s-school had e-ended? W-w-well, it's going to-to-to -(muffled crying). S-sorry. I c-can't say it.

No, I'm kidding. I have fun in school. I like to learn. It's the socializing I can't stand. All those drama wars... Jeez. It's annoying. Hoping that I'm not insulting anyway here.

I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist or NCIS. Darn.

* * *

><p>About five hours later, and the room had severely diminished its population. Knox, the Elrics, the Xingese, half of Gibbs's team, and half of Mustang's team had all left. The ones remaining were Vance, Gibbs, Dinozzo, Hawkeye, Fuery, and Havoc. The ones who had left were in the hospital, sorting out the whole shooting situation, or raiding the kitchens. The ones who were left were using it as a conference room since the only one available would be a bit odd to use, or because they were taking care of the communications and actually doing their job for once instead of slacking off.<p>

All in all, everyone was quite busy.

"What did they say?" Gibbs asked Dinozzo, who'd just returned from the hospital.

Dinozzo shrugged. "It's Ed. The doctors were kind of pissed that he was walking around for about half an hour without proper treatment to it, but they say there's going to be no lasting damage. And, knowing him, he'll be good in about a few weeks even though the doctors say a month."

"And the politics?" Vance prompted, referring to the other place Dinozzo had stopped at.

Dinozzo slightly winced, remembering the storage room the generals had been using as a meeting room. He'd been supposed to get some sort of summary report for what was going on, but he hadn't even had to ask. The conversation in the room could have been heard clearly from the other end of the hall. He was surprised everyone in the room could still hear. Probably wouldn't last long.

"The generals are... well. I'm not sure how to put it. 'Pissed off' doesn't exactly work, and 'mad as hell' is putting it lightly..." The similar look that Gibbs and Vance both gave him told him to hurry it up. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that their asses were dumped in a barrel of oil, before being lit on fire and then being kidnapped by the flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz who dropped them in the middle of a Bond gunfight. Basically. They're not happy about suddenly having gunfire in their building, and they were increasingly distressed when they realized that we actually didn't have the American president here. And it seems like they've also been pissed at their Fuhrer ever since he took office."

Havoc snorted. "That's one way to put it." Fuery gave a nod of agreement.

"So, what do we do now?" he asked.

"Well, we'll be heading home. There's no more chaos here for us to create and/or help along." The last part the NCIS director added dryly. "If that's all you need from us, we'll be going."

Hawkeye nodded, and replied, "You might want to wait for the Fuhrer to see if he has anything, but if you really have to I think you should be fine to leave."

"Actually," Gibbs said, gaining attention, "while he might not, I've got something for everyone. Get a damn backup portal, will you?"

Hawkeye smiled. "We'll see what we can do."

* * *

><p>Ed folded his arms grumpily. Al was sitting in a chair next to the bed, trying not to notice the level of his brother's rising irritation. The doctors had left them alone hours ago, knowing that the two could take it from there. Besides, it wasn't like there would be anything that they could convince Ed to do about his wound (like not using that arm). They'd had to treat him several times before, and had had to learn that lesson quickly. The two were now waiting for... something.<p>

"Did all of you really have to gain up on me?" Ed asked, impatient at being forced to stay in the hospital bed. The whole hospital thing had been done completely against his will, including his arrival there and his exit from the office. _Maybe_, if they'd asked _politely_, or even at _all_, he would've gone along with it. _Maybe. _But no, they had to knock him unconscious and drag him there! Couldn't they have at least given him dignity? Wait, he'd forgotten. Izumi _and _Mustang had been in the room, making no sort of thing possible. Both knew him too well to think that he would go willingly, and weren't stupid enough to give him the chance to escape.

Al gave him a look.

Ed went back to sulking.

It'd been a few hours since the surgery, and so far the only people Ed had seen after waking up had been Knox, a few nurses, and Al. From what Knox had said, everyone else was bogged down with tons of pounds of problems. The generals were apparently trying to give themselves heart attacks. The Americans needed to head back home. Someone needed to create a portal that wasn't literally in the middle of nowhere and more than half a country away, along with a backup. The shooting had created a ruckus, and explanations needed to be given. Politics needed to be dealt with for the Xingese and the Drachmans. There were probably more things Ed hadn't even considered yet that they were having problems with.

In the mean time, he was bored. What was he supposed to do in a hospital? And while it wouldn't last much longer, he was still ticked and holding out on Al. The hospital part, yeah, he got that. It made sense. But knocking him out with the hilt of Ling's sword? Drugging him with Valium? Putting him into surgery without bothering to wake him up and tell him that when he regained consciousness again he wouldn't be able to feel his arm? While he knew Al wasn't the only one involved, he still would've expected someone to argue the point for his unconscious body.

Al had understood, and fallen back into his own silence. He had no regrets. Frankly, while his older brother would deny it fully, given the slightest opportunity he would've bolted for it, never to be seen again until he got hungry. It'd been for Ed's own good. Not like he would ever see it that way. ...Although maybe the Valium had been a little overboard, even if it had been funny to see Ed acting drunk when he'd first woken up.

_'S'where am I? I? Eye? Eyeball? Basketball? Basket a fruit? Bananas?'_

_'The hospital. Dr. Knox, how long is he going to be like this?'_

_'A while. I need to go look at my other patients now...' _

_'How d'you look at your patience? Tha doesn' make any sense... Are you goin ta be lookin at your six sense, too? Why am I in the... the... hospital?'_

_'Because you got shot, Nii-san. Remember?'_

_'Someone tried to give me a shot!'_

_'No, someone shot you. With a bullet.'_

_'Oh. Why'd dey do a thing like that? I haven't ticked off that many people... Well, maybe I have... I've ticked off a lot of people... A lot of people... That lot of people... That's a lot of people...'_

_'They weren't trying to hit you. They were trying to hit Mustang and Vunsen.'_

_'I tought you said dey were using guns.'_

_'Yeah, I did. Why?'_

_'But... they got hit.'_

_'...What? Oh! They were trying to hit them with bullets. They hit you with a bullet instead.'_

_'Ah, I get it now... S'why'd they hit me?'_

_'They missed.'_

_'Oh. K' then. Are dey in the hopsital?'_

_'Is who in the hospital?'_

_'Mustang... and the... the... the other guy. Can' remember his name...'_

_'They weren't injured. The bullets missed them completely.'_

_'The bullets got crappy aim...'_

_'Yeah... Guess they do...'_

_'...Al?'_

_'Hm?'_

_'Where's my arm?'_

_'What do you mean? It's right there.'_

_'No's not. Can't feel it. Did I lo...mis...misplace it?'_

_'No, Ed. It's right there. You have sedatives in your system, so you can't feel your arm. When they wear off, you'll be able to feel it.'_

_'Wha?'_

_'...Never mind.'_

_'Where's my arm?'_

_'...Mustang's looking for it. I'm sure he'll find it soon.'_

_'...'K... Hey, Al?'_

_'Yes?'_

_'Where'm I?'_

_'...The hospital.'_

_'The what?'_

Al grinned. If only they'd caught it on video camera... Might be worth dealing with another sniper incident if only so they could tape Ed on Valium. He might not let them allow anyone in the room with a blunt object get behind him if he remembered this incidence, though. Maybe they could drug someone else instead...

Ed caught the grin, and guessed what it was about. "If you're thinking about drugging me on Valium again..."

"No, just wondering who we could drug next. Unless you're offering, of course."

"Do I look like I'm offering to be shot, smacked with a sword by Squinty-Eyes, and then knocked out for almost half a day before being drugged again?"

"I was just thinking of skipping straight to the drugging part of it."

"No."

"We could always drug someone else."

Ed cocked his head, thinking. "Hm... Who to drug..."

Al feigned shock. "You're not immediately dooming Mustang to this terrible feight? Nii-san! There may yet be hope for your maturity!"

The elder rolled his eyes. "Mustang's the Flame Alchemist and doesn't need a drawn array. I don't want to be anywhere near him when he's on Valium -or is drunk for that matter- unless it's to knock him out to stop him from burning the city down!"

Al nodded. "Point taken."

"What point?"

The brothers turned to Gibbs, who was standing in the doorway, eyebrow raised. "The point of why being near a drunk Mustang is a bad idea unless you're planning to hit him with a frying pan."

Gibbs decided not to ask why the two were discussing a drunken Fuhrer. Al, however, pressed the point. "Why a frying pan?"

"Well, he'd probably be near a kitchen, and knocking him over the head with a bottle might do a little more than send him into La-La Land. So, frying pan."

"Ah. Okay." Al turned back to Gibbs. "Was there something you needed?"

"Not really, no. Thought I might stop by since we're leaving. The other three'll be down here soon, once they stop stealing from the kitchen, teaching your friends how to use a cell phone, and debating the best way to kill someone with a lamp and not be caught." Gibbs glanced at the wound, moving into the room so that he wasn't blocking the door. "How is it?"

Ed shrugged. "Once I could feel it-" this brought forth snickers from Al, who then received a glare, "-it feels surprisingly similar to what my head feels like after Winry maims it with her wrench. It'll be fine. My sanity won't be if they try to keep me in here for more than a week."

"The doctors say as long as you don't manage to get yourself into some sort of accident with a tank, you'll be out of here soon. I would've said car, but I guess nothing normal can happen to you."

"Also, he would fit right under the car, so it wouldn't have been able to hit him. A tank, however, has bigger wheels that it could run him over with." Mustang entered the room behind Gibbs, a smirk on his face that looked somewhat depressing and forced. Like it had just gotten hit with the aforementioned tank.

Ed's shouts were easily dismissed. "So, Fuhrer, did you find Ed's arm while you were out?" Al asked cheerfully, not able to let up on puns about the Valium. While he received two blank looks from Mustang and Gibbs, Ed groaned and fell forward onto the bed, face buried.

"Would you shut up about it already?" his muffled voice said.

"Nope," Al replied, uncharacteristically unsympathetic. At the unspoken question from the adults, he explained, "Valium." No further statement was needed. "Shouldn't you be in the room with the generals?" Al asked, realizing why Mustang looked like a train wreck.

Mustang gave a slight grimace, and Ed raised his head as the conversation entered more serious waters. "No. Meeting over. Surprised it went that quickly, but we all have a mess to clean up. Which they're really not happy about, by the way."

"So we noticed," Ed mentioned. "Did they bring a steam roller to the meeting, or something?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" a cross Mustang asked.

"It means you look like you were trampled by a herd of charging dinosaurs before getting tossed in a pit of lions."

"...Close enough to the truth." Mustang shrugged. "They acted like lions." He threw one hand up to the air, palm skyward, and looked down dramatically with the other hand on his hip. "However, I am far too awesome and astonishing to be discouraged or even affected by such things."

"Not to be rude, but don't you both have places to be?" Al asked, curious, while his brother rolled his eyes and gave a snort.

Mustang slipped out of the pose and exchanged glances with Gibbs. "Technically."

Ed laughed, and held his index finger over his lips. "Translation: an injured friend or comrade or subordinate or family member or friend of a friend or just about anyone else is a legitimate and reasonable excuse to get out of paperwork any time, any day, anywhere."

The adults exchanged another glance. "More or less."

Gibbs shrugged. "In all honesty, we do need to be getting back. We've got work to do, and I don't even want to think about all the mess this is going to cause..."

"Since Abby's going to trample you, and the CIA and FBI'll be all over this." Ed nodded. "Have fun!"

Mustang sighed. "And I'm probably going to get dragged back to my office soon anyhow when someone from my office catches up to me..." To prove his point, he glanced down both hallways as if expecting ninjas to come after him with guns. This move was his saving grace, since apparently the ninjas had sent their best. He took off down the hallway without another word, and seconds later a blond female ninja hurried past the door after them.

The remaining three shrugged, and abandoned their friend to his fate. And a cruel and gruesome fate it would be.

"When they get down here," Gibbs said, referring his agents, "tell them to go to the roof where Lan Fan was. Colonel Armstrong spared some of his time and put a portal up there. They're going to be putting a portal in each of the HQ's." He paused slightly to put a break in the two different subjects. "Well. See ya later," Gibbs finished, waving a hand over his shoulder as he left. He'd never been one for small talk. There was nothing left for him to do here.

A few more minutes passed with Ed and Al exchanging notes. "No news yet from the Drachmans, so either they're just trying to put this as far behind them as possible, or Vunsen hasn't told them yet that someone tried to take a hit at him here," Al said.

"It's might be a good thing that Mustang was shot at, too," Ed thought aloud. "After all, if we couldn't stop someone from taking a hit at our own leader, how would we stop a hit at someone else's?"

Al shrugged. "I guess so."

"Any other news?"

"Not really, no. That's all I heard before the aftermath really struck. We had about half an hour before we got his by the tornado. And the tsunami. And the earthquake."

"Don't forget the lightning storm or the avalanche."

"Yup."

"Amazing, really. We managed a tsunami without being anywhere near the ocean. We're so damn special," Ed added with a cocky grin. Al rolled his eyes with a similar expression on his face.

Dinozzo poked his head into the room, and jovially asked, "What's going on in here? Ed, what are you doing in the hospital? Not like you got shot or anything..."

Ed rolled his eyes. "Came here to make sarcastic remarks, Dinozzo? I got a few for you too!"

As Dinozzo grinned and walked further into the room when prodded forward by Ziva from behind, Al put a hand parallel to his mouth and whispered loudly, "He's kinda ticked about the whole Valium thing. Just kinda, though."

Ed reached over to swat Al, who expertly dodged the hand.

"Are we all on his black list now?" McGee asked Al lightly, also coming in behind Dinozzo and Ziva.

Ed gave him a look that gave the answer. "No. Not at all." His tone didn't agree with the words or the look. Ziva shrugged, not really caring since it wouldn't last long.

"How are you?" she asked, getting to the point.

"I'd be better if everyone hadn't drugged me and stuck me in surgery without my consent."

"Details, details. Other than that?"

"Yeah, just peachy." Sarcasm. "Really, though, I'm fine."

Dinozzo stared at the ceiling. "That's good, I guess. Might not last long, though. Hey, do you know where Gibbs is by any chance? He didn't exactly leave any instructions on what to do once we got done with our jobs."

"Wait, what do you mean, not long?" Al asked, detecting the slight nervousness in Dinozzo's stance.

"Hm? Oh, nothing, nothing... Why?"

"Dinozzo..." Ed gave the agent a suspicious glance.

"Your teacher's coming," Ziva deadpanned. The alchemists gave her horrified glances. Dinozzo gave her a look that said how much he appreciated having his build-up to the news being effectively ruined. "She should be here soon."

Ed turned to Al. "Can you check to see if the window opens?" Al nodded solemnly, and moved to the window. With a bit of pressure, it popped open.

"Well, bye." Al waved a hand over his shoulder, abandoning those in the room. He slid over the sill, and landed on the ground. He strode quickly away from the window.* The agents gave Ed a confused look. He shrugged in response, simultaneously taking out the IV and detaching himself from the machines. He swung out of bed and walked toward the window after his brother, who was already a street away, having glimpsed his teacher and run in a panic.

"Is that a good idea?" Ziva asked. She got a shrug in response.

"I've done stupider. Wait, did I just admit that...? Whatever. And before I forget, Gibbs said that the new portal's up on the roof where Lan Fan was. He said to go up there. See ya!" With that, the second Elric departed.

A second after he disappeared from view, the agents began to depart, chuckling. Their laughs were halted as they heard something resembling a terrified squeak outside, and then saw Izumi Curtis running past the window, yelling, "Get your ass back in the hospital!" Their expressions turned worried, before shrugging in defeat. Nothing they could do about it.

* * *

><p>Abby ran across the bullpen, colliding with the returning agents. "You're back! You're finally back! Yes yes yes!"<p>

"Abby, it hasn't been that long," Gibbs pointed out, and, having received his hug, dodged around her to get to his desk.

"Yes it has! For me anyway. So how was it? Did you see Ed and Al? How are they? I heard that there was some sort of problem over there. Those two came in here when the portal reopened, so it couldn't have been before then. Their teacher's nice, I don't know why they were so scared of her. But she must be good to have taught them. Did you meet anyone else that they knew? Well?" Abby interrogated.

Ziva was silently chosen as the spokesperson. She took the stand while McGee and Dinozzo made it to their seats. "Yes, we saw both of them. We met some of the people they worked with. There was a problem with the meeting, and some snipers were trying to take out Vunsen and Mustang. Both missed, but Ed was hospitalized for a day. He was making an escape when we left, so he was not too bad in."

"Off," two people corrected instantly.

"Is everyone okay? What happened to the snipers? Why was Ed hospitalized?"

"Everyone but Ed. He was standing in the wrong place, and got glanced by both shots." Dinozzo had taken over. "The snipers were all taken down. We had this epic fight, but they were the only ones who got hurt," he said, trying to sooth the frantic scientist.

"Abby, we can just send down the report," Gibbs pointed out from his desk. He knew she was worried, but they had a bunch of catching up to do and were going to be doing serious overtime. It was going to be hell as it was.

"Yeah, okay, I know. Oh! By the way, the guy who bombed the building?" Abby said, catching the complete attention of all of them. "He was seen a few hours ago, leaving the city. He was also being chased by some people who are starting to overtake him. They'll catch up soon."

"Do we know who they are?" Gibbs asked, grabbing his coat from where he'd set it down. The rest of his team was also grabbing their gear as he did, preparing to go.

"Nope. They were last spotted near Potomac, entering Virginia. They've all been pushing pretty hard to get wherever they're going," Abby said, even as the team started to leave.

"Thanks, Abbs. What kind of car?" Gibbs asked.

"The Drachman stole a black Ford truck. I sent you the license plate."

"And his pursuers?" Gibbs prompted as they started into the elevator.

"Another Ford truck, this one red. But one of them isn't really using it."

Gibbs paused. "What?"

"He's not using it so much as jumping on it. He's not completely human, either."

* * *

><p>*So Bradley was an ass. He still knew how to make an exit. I couldn't resist. ^^<p> 


	8. Eradicating Paperwork

a/n: I have said the disclaimer for these two series seventeen times. Do I need to do it for an eighteenth time? Really? (technically, I've done it a lot more for FMA and once more for NCIS, but for both of them combined it's seventeen)

* * *

><p>Hawkeye strode quickly down the streets of Central, searching for four people. They couldn't have gotten far, and if they had, it was only because they were flying or running after the people flying. If not, it was because Izumi had caught them and was reprimanding them on the ground.<p>

Sure enough, she ran across the Curtises and Elrics only a few blocks from the hospital. The boys were sitting on the ground, looking like six year olds who had just gotten caught stealing from the cookie jar. Ed was still in his clothes from the hospital, a hint of a bandage peeking out near his neck. They both stared at the ground, sulking at having been caught. Izumi stood over them, firmly scolding, looking ever the mother of the two. Sig stood a few feet away, appearing to not be paying attention.

However, he was the first to notice the presence of the major. He inclined his head in greeting, then went back to staring into space. The move didn't go unnoticed by his wife, and she turned to face Hawkeye. "Riza!" she exclaimed, switching modes easily. The first name basis had come from the time both had spent in the hospital after the near-Apocalypse of Amestris, having gotten to know each other quite well. "What brings you here?" Behind her, the two started to edge away. She shot them a glare that riveted them to their positions before turning back to Hawkeye.

"Message from America came in a few minutes ago. They located the Drachman who set the bomb, and they're currently in pursuit. It also appears that someone else is tailing them, and they want to know if we recognize them," Hawkeye reported. "The rest of us are a bit busy with the shooting, so we wanted to see if we could send them." She glanced at the Elrics, who were beginning to look hopeful. "If you're busy with them, we can find someone else."

Izumi shrugged. "They can go." The six year olds had just received the entire cookie jar along with the tub of ice cream. "I think I might go with them, too." The cookies had gone moldy and the ice cream tub was empty. Horror filled the six year olds' expressions. "The parallel universe was interesting." She glanced over at her husband. "As long as you want to go also, of course." A nod confirmed it. Izumi smiled at her husband, and then to Hawkeye. "Okay! That's settled. Where's the new portal I heard they made?"

Hawkeye returned the smile, careful to not make it look like she was partly smiling at the dilemma of the brothers. "Roof of HQ. Hard to miss once you get up there. Tell Gibbs it was nice working with him, would you? Never got to slip that in, what with all the confusion over here."

"Sure! Come on, you two," Izumi called over her shoulder as she and Sig started to leave the alley she had finally caught up to the two in. Ed and Al exchanged glances and groaned. Hawkeye gave them a slightly humored look and slightly sympathetic look before leaving them.

* * *

><p>By the time they arrived at the NCIS building, the team of Gibbs had already left. The bullpen was empty, and the quartet ignored it to go to the lab underneath the building. With pressure from his brother and teacher, Ed started to point things out to them and Sig. Vance nodded a welcome as he passed overhead.<p>

A minute later, and they were trying to prevent their eardrums for running away. Ed walked up to the scientist, and loudly yelled, "Abby!" She turned just as he was about to try again, jumped slightly in surprise, and then reached down and picked up the remote. She pushed a button, and the music turned off.

"Sorry. Ah, you're all here again!" She clapped her hands together with excitement. Then she paused, cocking her head at Sig. "I don't know you, but I'm guessing your her husband?" She didn't need to give any more clarification, since the only other 'her' was Izumi. Sig nodded. "Right! Nice to meet you. And nice to meet you all again."

"Abby."

"Yes, yes, pursuit in progress, got it..." Abby turned to her computer, and started typing. "Okay, so the guy was already being chased when we found him. And that's also why we found him. He was hard to miss once his pursuers found him, and since then they've been playing cat and mouse. That all started about an hour ago. Gibbs and the others went after them."

"They're not working together?" Izumi asked, guessing from the way the Abby was talking about it.

"Nope." Abby typed something in, and a video popped up on her screen. It began playing, and showed from a story window a Ford pulling out onto the street. Almost instantly, someone landed on the roof. The Ford swerved, and managed to shake them off. It kept going, and the he scrambled to his feet before taking off after them. Another car pulled out, and the man grabbed on, sliding onto the roof. This person didn't try to shake them off.

Ed and Al recognized them instantly, even though one was partially hidden. "Zampano and Jerso."

"Two chimeras. We met them back when we were trying to stop the Father. I was traveling with them for a while in Xing, but I returned home bit later when Ed came back," Al explained. "They must've heard something about this and gone after the Drachman."

Abby picked up her phone. "Then should I tell Gibbs and his team not to shoot them?"

"Preferably, yeah."

* * *

><p>The car swerved, avoiding a stop sign by centimeters. Gibbs kept on the pedal determinedly, with two frightened agents in the car. Ziva was perfectly calm, on the other hand. Ahead of them by a few quickly decreasing hundered yards, the Ford was still under attack. With one car tailing it closely behind, the person on the roof kept jumping between cars, attempting to attack the one in front each time. Occasionally, a bullet fired through the roof would convince him off or the truck would shake him off on its own.<p>

Gibbs's phone rang. He barely glanced at it, tossing it to Dinozzo to answer it instead. The other agent flailed with it for a second, unbalanced from the car on the dirt road and the ferocity of his senior's driving. The moment was gone when the phone flew out the car window.

Ziva watched it go past her window, already seeing the Gibbs slap to Dinozzo's head. McGee tried to supress a snicker. Dinozzo winced, cursing his momentary clumsiness.

Gibbs merely raised an eyebrow at Dinozzo, and then turned back to the road. "Hope that wasn't important."

* * *

><p>Abby frowned. "It says the connection's gone. Weird... I'll try Tony's."<p>

* * *

><p>The car swerved again, and a tree branch smacked the top of it. The confusion ahead of them finally ended as they closed the gap. The man shot something out of its back and onto the road ahead. While he had done this before, the Ford skidded on a patch of mud this time and went right into it. The man jumped from the roof, landing as best he could while trying to keep track of the truck. It flipped, and rolled a few times, ending up on its back. The Drachman scrambled out, briefly having a few seconds of freedom before he was tackled to the ground.<p>

Both hands were thrown behind his back and held there by the man who'd been jumping around. The other truck skidded to a halt, and the driver joined his friend by the foreigner on the ground. They conversed for a few seconds, before turning to face the NCIS agents while still holding down the Drachman.

Dinozzo's phone rang. He glanced down, and picked it up even as he got out of the car that Gibbs had stopped.

"Don't drop this one," Gibbs called calmly over the hood of the car.

As Dinozzo put the phone to his ear, he heard Abby's excited voice. "What happened to Gibbs's phone? I mean, he never hangs up on me, and this is really important, and he should've known that because he's Gibbs, so what h-"

"I threw it out the window," Dinozzo said bluntly, albeit with embarrassment.

"Oh. That explains it. Wait, why'd you-"

"Later. What was it?"

"Oh, yeah. Don't shoot the two people! They're friends. Of Ed and Al's."

Dinozzo nodded, and then gave an acknowledgement through the phone. He glanced over at Gibbs, who already had his gun, and said, "Abby says don't shoot them, or we'll have to suffer the wrath of two ticked teenagers. And probably some other people."

"Ed and Al are at the other end?" one of the people called. "Tell them hi!"

Dinozzo grinned, and sent the message through. Gibbs reholstered the gun, and pulled out a pair of handcuffs instead. "Unless you want to be in that position until we get back to holding..."

The man slid to the side. "All yours." The Drachman grunted as Gibbs handcuffed him and then hauled him to his feet. Dinozzo took him, phone put away.

Now that he was free handed, he held out one towards the two. "Agent Gibbs from NCIS."

"Zampano," the one who'd done the tackling and jumping said, switching back to his other form with a shudder.

"Jerso," the driver said, shaking Gibbs's hand. "We're chimeras. Met the kiddies back during the fight with the Father. ...Was I supposed to say that?"

Gibbs shrugged it off. "Already heard about it. Would you mind tailing us back to NCIS?"

* * *

><p>Abby hung up. "Okay, first off, they're not shooting. Secondly, the phone line cut because the phone is now roadkill. And lastly, your friends say hi."<p>

"Road kill?" Ed asked, pointing out the odd thing. "Did he drop it or something?"

"Tony did."

"Of course. How?"

"Out the window."

"..."

"Yeah. So anyway, they should be here soon."

"How did he drop it out the window?"

"I have absolutely no idea. He's good at stuff like that."

"So, what do we do now?" Izumi asked.

Abby turned to her. "Well, it'll take about an hour for your friends to get through the paperwork, but after that-or even before then, I guess- you can go. No, wait, you can't! Or maybe you can. Or no... I'm not sure." The four facing her stared at her with raised eyebrows. "Okay, so you can go, but we might have to call you back. Or maybe you shouldn't go, because Gibbs-"

"Abby?" Ed interrupted her flow. She paused. "How about we just wait for them to get back?"

"Okay!"

* * *

><p>"This is going to be hell on paperwork," Ed noted to Al. The NCIS team had returned five minutes ago, and the Drachman was in an interrogation room with Ziva. They would probably only be another minute or two. Meanwhile, Gibbs was talking to the Curtis couple, and Dinozzo and McGee were chatting with the chimera. All three agents were by their desks, with Dinozzo leaning against his to talk to the three, McGee sitting in his chair, and Gibbs standing next to Izumi and Sig. Ed and Al were sitting on the floor with their backs to Ziva's desk.<p>

"Huh?" Al asked, giving Ed a blank look. Ed returned it for a second, before realizing Al had no idea what he was talking about.

"They don't have chimera on this side, so it's going to be hard to explain how they caught him. And the jury might not buy it. Actually, I'm not even sure what they're going to do with this guy. He bombed an NCIS team, so they'll send him to jail here since it was on American soil, but if the Amestrians testify too..." He shrugged. "It'll be a bunch of long complicated work that we don't have to deal with!"

Dinozzo pulled a piece of paper out from his trash and crumpled it. He tossed it at the teenager, having heard him. "Hey! Give us some respect!"

Ed threw the paper ball back. "Like that kind of respect?"

The next few seconds could only be described as a food fight with a replacement of paper instead of food. From the sidelines, Gibbs, Zampano, Jerso, Sig, and Izumi gave similar expressions of exasperation. "Who're the kids here, again?" Gibbs asked to no one in particular.

Ziva walked up behind him. "I don't believe Tony ever grew up some days. If any of you knock over anything on my desk, you're paying!" She called the last part over to the fight between the three children. McGee was taking refuge behind his desk.

"Got it!" Ed called back, ducking another ball thrown his way. He returned fire with another one.

The elevator doors dinged open. The two that came out walked around the bullpen, avoiding the food/paper fight as best they could. They came to a stop beside the other adults. "What happened here?" Mustang asked.

"The Yetis," Gibbs said simply. "What're you doing here?"

"Wanted to know if Ed felt like getting back in a hospital anytime soon, and if there was anything you wanted us to do about the Drachman you caught. Thanks for that, by the way." He stepped slightly out of the way to prevent a wadded up ball from hitting him.

"Anytime. And yes, we could use your help. We need a testimony from those two-" he gestured to the two maniacally grinning teens, "-if you can convince them to give it. They might have to come down later for court. Also, if there's anything you can do about convincing a jury as to who caught the Drachman, that would be good too."

Mustang gave a sigh. "More paperwork. Maybe I shouldn't have stopped by. Or maybe I can get overtime payment..."

"Sir," Hawkeye replied easily, "You have to do your normal work first before you do the overtime."

"Damn." He cocked his head at the paper ball fight. "Should we...?"

Pause.

Then, simultaneously, all of them spoke.

"Nah."

"I think they're fine."

"No."

"It's a Saturday, no one will care as long as they clean it up."

"Let's just leave them where they are."

"They look a little too happy to stop them."

"We're good where we are."

"Nope."

And with that, they left the bullpen to its doomed fate to go sort out the paperwork elsewhere. Where that would be they did not know, but it would not be where there was a massive paper ball fight caused by the mysterious Yetis.

Until Ziva spoke. "Boss, I don't know if I'm going to get anything out of him. They trained him well against interrogation."

"There's always some way to make someone open up. You just have to find it," Gibbs responded.

"If that's all, we should probably be going." Izumi gestured to her and her husband. "Ed and Al will be able to get back on their own, or they can ride back with you two." She cocked her head towards Mustang and Hawkeye. "We should be getting back now."

Gibbs nodded, and the two departed. "Speaking of which," Jerso said, "Where should we be? Do we still need to stay here, or...?"

"I think we'll just have to find a way to leave you two out of it. If you want, you're free to go."

As he was about to head towards the interrogation room, Mustang stopped him. "Can I try? I doubt I'll get anything better out of him than your agent did, but..."

Gibbs waved his hand. "Be my guest."

* * *

><p>After explaining the mirror and cameras, they sent Mustang in. The three remaining stood behind the glass, waiting. They'd told him to give them a second to get in there, and then to enter.<p>

The interrogation was over before it started. Literally. Mustang opened the door, and took about two and a half steps in before the Drachman looked up and saw him. "Okay! I set the bomb!"

Mustang paused. "Well. That was easier said than done."

Gibbs shrugged. "Whatever floats your boat, I guess." He turned, and left the room. The other two followed him, and they all met Mustang back outside the hall. "I guess your reputation precedes you, then."

He shrugged. "Aparently. I wasn't actually expecting it to work, but whatever. If that was all-"

"Paperwork," Hawkeye bluntly interrupted.

Mustang winced slightly. "Oh, crud. Er, right, right..." Hawkeye rolled her eyes at him. "Wait, are we talking about the paperwork back by the newly-formed avanlanche over there?" He gestured back to the pullpen, where papers were streaming over Dinozzo's and Ziva's desk from where they'd barricaded them to avoid being hit and to give themselves cover to throw paper.

"Yeah..."

Dinozzo through another paperball, which nearly bounced off of Ed's head. He gave a yelp as he ducked back down, and two paper balls soared over him. Dinozzo tossed another one in retaliation, and it ducked over the pile to completely miss both of them.

Gibbs walked calmly to his desk, right beside the main fire area, and sifted through what was on his desk until he came up with all the paperwork. All the paperballs seemed to have the common sense to avoid him as he left the bullpen again. He raised the stack of folders, and Mustang surpressed a groan. "Conference room should be open. We'll try there."

* * *

><p>When Abby was about to leave, she first went to Gibbs's team's area to visit them and the additions in case they were still there. She raised her eyebrow at the three people remaining. Ed and Al were sitting behind Ziva's desk, holding paperballs in each hand. Dinozzo was on the other side of his desk, peeking over the rim to see if they had come up yet so he could fire. "Um... What are you three doing?"<p>

Dinozzo opened his mouth, as if trying to think of a way to answer that. Then he thought about it, closed his mouth, speculated for another second, and then got hit with four balls. "Ow! Hey, guys! I'm trying to answer the lady's question!"

Ed bounced one off his forehead, since he had yet to duck back down again. "Then do it faster or you're going to get hit more!" He glanced at Abby. "We're throwing paper balls at each other. I have absolutely no idea why. I can't even really remember how this started, now that I think about it..."

"Uh huh... You need a referee!"

* * *

><p>About an hour later, Gibbs, Mustang, and Hawkeye left the conference room, satisified. While the paperwork normally hadn't been that bad for Gibbs, this case had been bad enough with all the diplomacies to go through that it had been good to have some extra hands. Especially since half the paperwork was supposed to be filled out by them anyways, for testimony for the bombing and the later shooting. Hawkeye could now point out to Mustang every time he slacked off that he actually was able to do paperwork, which was something he'd overlooked when he'd come over to this side to procrastinate. As for Mustang, he now knew where they needed to go to get better coffee.<p>

Gibbs glanced over the rail, and said, "Are they seriously still at that?"

The Flame Alchemist shrugged. "Well, I guess that's one way to get rid of paperwork. Should've thought of that earlier..." His subordinate shot him a glare. He changed tactics in a failed attempt. "Or, I should'nt have, since it's completely, uh, childish, and...immature?" The look didn't relent.

Gibbs smirked without either of them seeing it, and started walking down the stairs. He set the paperwork down on his desk, and glanced back up to where Hawkeye and Mustang were still talking over something, whether it be his paperwork back in his own office or not he didn't know.

He turned his attention to the paperball fight. It looked like they'd just pulled things out of Dinozzo's trash, crumpled it up, and thrown it at each other. It must have eventually morphed into piles in front of their desks and on the desks, since barricades were now shielding each side. Dinozzo's paper trash stock must've run out, since there was no way that all that paper had come from there. On the other hand, all of the other agents' trash cans were suspiciously empty of any sort of paper.

Abby had taken Gibbs's desk, and was refereeing the whole thing. She called out another point for Dinozzo, and then looked back and saw him. "Gibbs!" She jumped up, and hugged him. "Sorry, they started a paperball fight, and I just didn't have the heart to stop them, but then I think it kind of got out of control at some point, and Ziva's probably going to be mad, too, since I don't think she'll be able to get to her desk, and I really don't want to think about what some of this paper was next to so you might need to disinfect both desks-"

"Abby, Abby. Calm down. None of us are mad." She cocked her head in confusion. "We knew they were throwing paper balls at each other, and we left them to it. It's kind of like recycling, in a way. Besides, Ziva won't have any reason to be mad either." By then, the other two had looked up to see what he was talking about. "They've got a whole day to clean it up."

All three exchanged horrified glances. Gibbs gave them an uncaring look as they turned their horror on him, and headed to the elevator that Mustang and Hawkeye had already left by.

They exchanged glances again, and then Dinozzo groaned and smacked his desk with his head. "We're so screwed..."

"Hey, you started it!" Ed tossed back.

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

Soon, the verbal sparring changed back into throwing things at each other. Abby mouthed to Al, 'You thought they would've learned by now, wouldn't you?' He shrugged in response, and threw another wadded up ball at Dinozzo.

In the elevator, Gibbs was telling Ziva by phone not to come in the next day. Their friends would be needing a while to shoo the Yetis away.

* * *

><p>an: Okay, so I meant to post this yesterday night, but whatever. I also discovered a problem. I like typing in the night area of things, when no one else is awake. With school starting, you can see the problem. Things will start happening again next chapter!


	9. Bad Luck

a/n: so, hi guys. And girls. Sorry, but I call everyone 'guys'. Survived two weeks of school! Go me. And good luck to everyone else in school or who is starting school!

* * *

><p>Grumbling, Ed pulled another piece of paper over into a roughly named stack. He picked all of it up, and dumped it in a trashcan. Nearby, his brother and Dinozzo were doing the same. Ziva had called in about half an hour ago to smartly ask how it as going. About two seconds later and the phone line had been cut from Dinozzo's end. They were nearly done, but it didn't mean that their mood was lightening. It had steadily decreased since the fighting had ended and they learned that Gibbs had told the security guard that they weren't allowed to leave until Gibbs said they could. Which basically meant they had to clean up their mess or suffer the wrath of Gibbs and have to jump out the window to escape and possibly kill themselves in the process.<p>

They chose to clean up their mess.

Dinozzo dumped the rest of the crumpled and ripped paper into the trash. He fell backwards on the floor with a heavy sigh, and closed his eyes with his hands behind his head. "Done! Finally, done!"

Sweeping out of nowhere, and seeming to have taken lessons from Gibbs while doing so, Mustang said, "Lesson learned. Don't start paper fights while your superiors are around and can rightfully make you clean it up. Do it _after_ they leave."

Ed shrugged at Dinozzo, and looked up at Mustang. "What're you still doing here? I thought you left!"

"Came up the stairs. Phone lines are having issues since they're doing some sort of work on the telephone pole outside. It'll be down for about ten minutes, and I was still nearby." Mustang shrugged. "We're heading back home, by the way. Coming?"

"Sure," Ed replied, standing. Al threw a grin at Dinozzo, who was obviously all too aware that they were going to leave him to explaining the mess that had to have been cleaned up to his superiors. Vance had stopped by for a few seconds and asked for an explanation before leaving. "See, ya. Good luck!" Ed nudged Dinozzo in the stomach to finish his sentence. Dinozzo's reflexes made him jump and curl slightly with an 'oof!'. The blond glanced up and said, "Might want to come up with a reasonable excuse as to why you're lying on the floor shortly after cleaning up from a paperball fight. Just a suggestion."

Dinozzo looked up, and saw his boss entering from the elevators. He scrambled to his feet, and said, "Sir, I've got a reason for being on the floor!"

"Really?" Gibbs said in a tone that for anyone else would've not been disbelieving, but completely disregarded what Dinozzo said when spoken by Gibbs.

"Uh, yeah…"

Mustang gave a small shake of his head in denial. Gibbs caught it but didn't remark on it, instead moving to his desk. "Well, we should probably be heading back now. Stuff to do, people to calm down, paperwork to burn, yada yada…" The fuhrer gave a dismissive wave of his hand.

"Yup. Bye." Gibbs turned to Dinozzo. "Ziva and McGee are on the way. We've got a serial killer on the loose, and the police are turning it over to us since the last two victims were both marines…"

His voice trailed away as Mustang herded the two brothers out with a sweeping gesture that included both hands. Ed rolled his eyes, and Al smiled before walking to the elevators.

About ten minutes later, and the other two agents of Gibbs's team showed up. Gibbs briefed them quickly of the events that had begun to unfold since they had been given the case, which included a few new ones the Amestrians hadn't heard before they left. "Two dead marines, and six victims in all. All of them have been hit-and-runs, but what's made it identifiable as a serial killings have been that they all happened within exactly two hours of each other." He continued talking even as they hurried towards the elevator, not having much time. Gibbs explained their fast movements next.

"Abby was the one who put the timing together. The next killing's going to be in ten minutes, and we have no idea where. There's been no pattern there so far." The doors dinged as they closed. "Each one has happened at the half hour mark. Ducky says that this person wants to be caught, but is also trying to prove a point while doing it. We'll split up, and try to close in on this guy. Abby's working with the police to cover every security camera they have so when the next killing happens they can get a glimpse of his car. From there, we'll get him."

Seconds later, and they'd each taken different cars to cover more ground. Throughout the rest of the city, the police were doing something similar. The anticipated hit-and-run weighed down on their minds.

* * *

><p>After they exited the Navy Yard, Mustang said where they were heading. "We've got to pick up Hawkeye. She's still at the coffee shop we were talking to Agent Gibbs at. The only reason we really noticed the time and that we should all get into work was that he got a call from Ducky at the same time the kitchen caught on fire. She stayed behind to clean up, and said that they'd probably be done by the time I got you two over there."<p>

Al nodded. "How did you two get here?" At a curious glance from Mustang, he elaborated, "It's a fifty mile distance from here to the portal. You didn't walk. We got here because Palmer was coming in late and was close enough to pick us up."

Mustang was nodding halfway through, understanding. "They rented us a car. Somehow we haven't crashed it yet."

"Yet?" Ed muttered. Mustang shrugged. "So where's this coffee shop you lit on fire?"

"I didn't light it on fire!"

"Right."

"Seriously! This is one I had absolutely nothing to do with!"

"I'm sure."

"Whatever."

"Exactly."

"Are you ever not a smart aleck?"

"Yeah. Sometimes I'm cleaning up from paperball fights*."

Al laughed at them.

They made it to the coffee shop, and Hawkeye met them outside when she caught a glimpse of them through the windows. "Shop still standing?" Mustang asked absently.

"Somehow, it survived one of your fires." Hawkeye nodded.

"I didn't'-!" Mustang started, but broke off with a defeated sound as his friends exchanged knowing glances. "Let's get back to HQ. We've got work to be doing. That includes you two!" he added as Ed and Al started to tune out.

"What!"

"Gibbs says he needs your testimony. Which means: work!"

"Crap."

"Yeah, yeah, suck it up. Come on, let's get back home." He started down the road which the other three following after him. "Hawkeye, any new important reports from Central?" The pair walked side by side, conferring about events going on in the military. Ed and Al completely tuned them out this time, and started pushing points at each other about a project they'd been working on. The brothers walked just a bit behind the others, not wanting their conversations' words to get confused.

Mustang and Hawkeye led the group to where the car had been parked, and attempted to unlock the doors. It took them a second to remember that the way to open the car was not by jamming the jey into the door, but instead by pressing a key on the small grey object the NCIS had given them with the car. Ed snickered at their attempts, and Mustang surpressed the urge to smack him upside the head like Gibbs did to his teammates. Al nudged him with his foot.

"Okay, now we've got this!" Mustang exclaimed. He slipped into the front seat behind the wheel. Ed leaned his forearms on the car, peeking in. He didn't enter, and neither did Al, who had his back on the car door and was turned slightly to see the adults in the front seats and his brother. Mustang tried to start the car. It gave some sort of stutter, and protested before it died.

Ed raised an eyebrow, and glanced at Al, who wore a similar expression. "So impressing, huh?" Ed nodded in agreement, and they turned back to the other two. Mustang shot them an irritated look, and got out of the car.

"Okay, we'll head back to the NCIS building and ask what they want us to do about this. Unless one of us suddenly decides they know how to fix this, we're going to have to get another car." He paused a second, as if seriously waiting for someone to make some sort of revelation, and then started walking in direction of the NCIS building again. Hawkeye slipped out of the car, and joined him. The brothers padded behind them.

"Nicely done, Mustang," Ed said humorously. "I applaud you."

Mustang rolled his eyes, and crossed the mostly empty street. One car was heading towards them from one direction, but was far enough away to stop within a reasonable amount of time. They kept the same general formation, moving diagonally. "Please. This one I can blame on you. Bad luck seems to be following you like a plague as of late."

Al laughed, and Ed gave them both irritated looks. "I appreciate that. Really."

Mustang shrugged. "I'm here for comedy."

"And that's just about it."

"Hey!"

Al laughed harder, and Ed grinned. Hawkeye was pretty sure Mustang's eyes were going to roll out of his sockets with all the rolling they were doing recently. She gave a smile at their antics, though.

"He's right," Hawkeye pointed out. "It seems like if something bad can happen, it does and to you."

"Almost makes you wonder if something's going to happe-" Mustang started.

"Watch out!"

* * *

><p>Gibbs picked up his phone when it rang. "Where?"<p>

"Tentun Street. I guess you know where that-" the police officer began.

"Yup." He yanked the wheel around a corner, and started heading steadily towards the mentioned street. "Did they get a profile on the car yet?"

"They got it quickly. Black Chevy Equinox, heading Northeast on Huston Avenue. They haven't gotten an ID on the driver yet."

"The victim?"

"Don't know yet. No one's taken the time to get an ID. They're trying to cover the priorities first. Why?"

"Trying to find a connection, if there is one." The NCIS agent hung up, and steered around another car. He swung it back into the lanes, and drove what some people would call haphazardly down the road. Another call came in, and he easily answered it without taking his eyes off the road. "What?"

"Gibbs!" Abby screamed through the phone. "It was Ed!"

Gibbs froze for a second. He nearly slammed into the car in front of him as it slowed to take a turn, and he swore under his breath and dodged it. "What?" he yelled into the phone.

"The car hit Ed! He and his brother and the fuhrer and the major were all walking somewhere and the car hit him. I'm not sure where they were going, but it wasn't to their car."

He took a deep breath, and gripped the steering wheel tighter. "Is he moving?" he finally asked, trying to steady his breath. He'd just seen the kid barely ten minutes ago! How could he have had such bad luck as to get…

"I don't know. They pulled him off the road, and I can't see from the angle the security camera's at." Abby sounded like she was in hysterics on the other end. "Gibbs, what if he's-?"

"Who's nearest to him?"

"What?"

"Me, Ziva, Dinozzo, or McGee?"

"Ziva is."

"Okay. Call her, tell her to get over there and find out what happened and if he's okay, and then to give us a report." Abby gave a shaky affirmative. "And Abby?" He gave her a pause, but she didn't respond. "He's going to be fine. He survived a war with his military breathing down his back and fighting homunculi. He'll survive getting hit by a car if he could survive all that."

"Right. Right, okay." She took some breaths on the other end. "Oh, and Gibbs?"

"Yeah?"

"Spread the word: stop looking for the car. You're not going to find it."

"What? Did he abandon it?"

"Uh, he kinda had to."

"Okay. Abby?"

"I know, okay, call Ziva, tell her to report, okay."

"Good. It'll be fine." He flipped the phone shut, and continued driving, ever more determined.

* * *

><p>"Watch out!"<p>

Ed whipped his head to his brother, and would later find that he had a crick in his neck, but would be unable to say whether it was whiplash from that movement or the collision. Al shot a hand out towards him, and Ed had less than a second to jerk forward while looking around in confusion. Mustang and Hawkeye had come to a stop, and were staring at the unfolding scene in surprise.

Through reflex, Ed jumped up and got one hand down on the hood. The driver looked at him in surprise, obviously not expecting that move. He also wasn't expecting Ed to stick his tongue out at him briefly before using the car's movement to roll onto his back over the car. His landing would have turned out gracefully, if not for the sudden pothole the car dipped into. With a yelp, his balance slipped and he hit the ground in a roll. He landed on his side, and came to a stop about two feet away from where he'd been hit.

The other three bolted forward and immediately started pulling Ed off the road. Al and Hawkeye got him down behind a parked car, and crouched there to ask him if he was alright. Meanwhile, Mustang had reached Ed, noted that he looked less in pain than he did torked off, and then turned to the speeding car. With a snarl, he snapped. The car jerked as a burst of flame caught it under the fender, and crashed into the a line of cars. Several car horns went off. Pedestrians looked around wildly, completely confused by the sudden loud noises from all around.

The car flipped, still on fire, and landed on its side. The passenger door opened, and the driver climbed out. He awkwardly fell, and scrambled to his feet. He took off into a nearby alley.

Mustang glanced back at Ed. Hawkeye and Al were still leaning over him, and his subordinate gave him a nod, waving him off. He returned the nod, and ran after the driver.

"Ed? Are you okay?" Al asked, not yet noticing Mustang's disappearance.

"Yeah, yeah…" Ed rubbed his head. "I just-ohh." He gave a surprised and slightly disoriented sound.

"What?"

Ed waved it off. "Nothing, might have a concussion, get to that later." He said all of it quickly, and it was slurred together to the point where Hawkeye couldn't understand it. Only through the power of teenage linguistical decryption that is bestowed upon all of the teenagers of the world did Al understand his brother.

"What?" Hawkeye asked, not knowing what Ed had said but picking up on the concussion immediately.

"He said 'Nothing, might have a concussion, get to that later'," Al translated. He turned back to his brother. "Other than that, anything else?"

"No, I'm good. Can I go hit the guy?"

Al looked around, respeaking the sentence to Hawkeye while looking for the culprit. "I don't know where he went. Wait, where's Mustang?"

"He went after the driver." Hawkeye gestured in the direction he'd gone. As she did, she saw another car pull up, but this one didn't try to run Ed over and instead came to a halt feet away from them. "Agent David?"

The Israeli circled quickly around the car and demanded, "What happened?"

"I got hit by a car. And I think there's a frog on that person's window sill," Ed slurred. Al gave him an odd look, and then looked to where the elder's line of sight was.

"Ed, that's not a frog. That's a cat." He turned to the other two, who were blankly looking at him. "He said that he was hit by a car and that he thinks there's a frog on someone's window sill. This is better than Valium." The last part was muttered, and the other two didn't catch it.

Ed did, however. "Hey!"

"Shh, don't talk. You're sure you're fine?"

"If you'd all stop yelling, I would be."

Ziva interrupted. "Can you guys better describe what happened so we can catch the guy? Abby can probably get a recording of it if there's a video camera somewhere nearby, but in the case that she can't."

"Sure. Car came out of nowhere, hit me, and then it exploded."

Ziva had already pulled out her phone and was dialing Abby when Ed was halfway through. Al interpreted quickly. "That's just about it. He kept going. What's going on?"

"There's been some serial killings within the past twelve hours. Hit and runs, all of them, exactly two hours apart. No connections to any of the victims," Ziva explained in between talking to Abby. "Yes, he's fine. I'm sure. Yes. Yes. Abby! Do you want to talk to him? Actually, that's not a good idea. No, I… Yes! He's not bleeding! I'm sure! I'm staring right at him! He has a concussion, though. Calm down, Abby! Can you send Ducky over to look him over? Okay, thanks. No, I'll tell Gibbs." She hung up, and gave them an apologetic look. "I probably should have called Gibbs first, but…"

Her phone rang, and she answered it. "Yes, Boss? Yes, I'm here. No. He's got a concussion, but that's it. He's not dead. Although if he has any more accidents, he might be. Yes, I called Abby and asked her to send him over. I would've called you first, but figured it would take Ducky a while to get out here anyway. Yes. Thank you. Okay, I'll tell him that. I don't know, but-. Okay. It looks like it crashed from where I'm standing."

She pulled the phone down from her ear, and said, "What happened to the driver?"

"Mustang crashed his car, and took off after him," Hawkeye said. Ziva sent that through to her boss. They exchanged a few more words, and then cut the line. "I assume you all have this from here?" Hawkeye asked, already standing. They nodded. "I'll go see if he needs assistance, since I don't believe he has any handcuffs on him." She ran towards the alley the two men had disappeared down.

Another car pulled up next to Ziva's. Dinozzo hopped out, and jogged towards them. "What happened here? Someone crashed the party?"

"Another phrase?" Ziva sighed.

"Not really." Dinozzo shrugged as he squated beside them. Ed had sat up with Al's help, and was leaning against the fender of a car. They were all shouting to be heard over the sound of the car alarms, the fire, the approaching fire department, and the approaching abulance. "So, what happened?"

"Ed was supposed to be our next victim," Ziva explained.

"My ninjaness saved me," Edward pointed his finger up to prove his point. Dinozzo raised an eyebrow at him. Al shrugged resignatedly, and repeated his sentence.

"And you felt it necessary to cause…?" Dinozzo waved his hand at the nearby chaos.

"That was Mustang, actually." Al gave another shrug, this one brighter. "What're you going here?"

"I was the second nearest, and the noise was sort of hard to miss." Dinozzo frowned. "Is that Ducky?"

"I asked Abby to call him so that he could do something about Ed's concussion," Ziva explained. He nodded, and Ducky approached them from his ride in a hurry.

"Oh, dear, you took a serious hit, didn't you?" Ducky shined a flashlight in his eyes. Ed blinked, and tried to move the light away. Ducky sighed. "We're going to have to do something about that. You should've been back in the hospital anyway since your bullet wound, and I think this will just quicken your visit."

"Crud…" That was the only thing they'd been able to understand that he'd said since he'd been hit by the car.

"Yeah, well, tough luck." The remark was aimed at the concussion-ed blond. Al paused. "Literally."

* * *

><p>*Slight Dresden Files quote. The actual one was 'Are you ever not a smart aleck?' 'Yes. Sometimes I'm asleep.'<p> 


	10. Solving Problems One by One

a/n: Hi. New chapter. Duh. Sorry it took that long and sorry it's so short. But I'm still tired because I've been sick for the past week. Got a fever of 103 degrees Fahrenheit (not Celsius!). It was already written out, but I wanted to just get it posted.

* * *

><p>"No, no, no!" He flapped his arms about, smacking several paramedics away. "I'm fine, I'm fine!"<p>

Nearby, Alphonse and Ziva exchanged exasperated glances. "Nii-san, let the paramedics do their job," Al sighed.

"But I'm fine!"

"No, you're bleeding, and you have a concussion!"

"But I'm fine!"

"No you're not! Just sit still!"

Behind them, a car came to a halt, and Gibbs came out. He walked over to where Ziva was standing, but didn't bother to ask for a report on Ed. It was more than a little obvious that he was un-dead and would be so for quite some time, until a helicopter fell on him or something. The only thing he thought that needed to be asked was, "Where's the driver?"

"The fuhrer and his major are chasing him. They should be coming back anytime now," Ziva reported immediately, having expected the question. "They went that way." She started to gesture towards the alley. Their line of attention was broken as an ambulance and a few squad cars pulled up. "Looks like the police are here."

"That it does." He walked off to give a summary report and see if they knew anything. He needed no more assurance about Ed.

Someone else did, on the other hand. "What happened? I heard that Ed got hit by a car and killed-" McGee said with concern as he ran up to them.

"Do I look dead to you?" Ed yelled from where the paramedics were checking him out, shaking a fist. The paramedics expertly dodged and continued with their work.

"Uh, no..."

Dinozzo took it from there, arms folded. "And do you think we would all be calmly standing here if he was?"

"No..."

"Then, think, McGeek!" the agent finished as he and Ziva slapped him upside the head.

Alphonse sighed, wondering who the kids in the area were, and turned back to his brother. He was still sitting where Al and Hawkeye had dragged him to, and the paramedics were crouching in between the gap between the two parked cars and Ziva's and Dinozzo's awkwardly stationed cars. As he finished, one paramedic stood, and gracefully swung himself over the front of Dinozzo's car to get out of the space. Al, leaning against the front of the car parked behind the one Ed was sprawled against, looked up at him.

The paramedic turned to him and said, "In a building when it was blown up, accidentally hit by snipers, and hit by a car. Your brother's got some serious bad luck."

"Heh. Yeah, I know. It seems like karma's coming back all at once," Al said with a smile. "If only we could get him to stay still long enough for him to fully recover, maybe he can dodge the next accident."

The paramedic smirked. "About that."

Al raised an eyebrow, and glanced over at Ed, who was still leaning against the other car, but now with considerably less energy. He looked back to the paramedic. "Sedatives?"

"Yup."

"Nice. How long?"

"Few hours."

"Do you normally do this?"

"Nah. Just recognized the type. I'm friends with a guy on a SWAT team, and I know another kid who acts the same way that he does. I keep a thing of sedatives on me just in case they call me and say they got injured. If they do that, it usually means one of their arms fell off and I'm going to have to drag them to the hospital. Hence, sedatives."*

Al started laughing halfway through, and said, "Almost seems like another version of Ed." A snore from the mentioned teen punctuated his sentence. He laughed again, and the paramedic smiled slightly. Then the younger sighed in resignation. "He's probably just going to go and wander off again and do something stupid."

The paramedic nodded knowingly, then bluntly said, "Handcuffs," before walking off. Al stared after him for a second before shrugging and turning back to his brother.

"So, he's going to be alright?" Mustang asked, appearing next to him.

Alphonse nodded. "No lasting harm." He paused, and then muttered, "But the way thins are going recently, that's not going to matter."

Mustang nodded in agreement, hearing the mutter. "Or one of us will get killed when the next car misses."

"Yup."

"So was that all the medic said?"

"Ah, no. He all also said that Ed has terrible luck and that we should use handcuffs to keep him in place."

"He-what?" The Fuhrer pondered it for a second. "Hey, that _would_ work. Maybe we should try it out..."

"Didn't catch him?" Al asked, noting that Hawkeye had also returned and that both were empty-handed. Mustang grimaced slightly in response. "It's okay. They'll catch him. He can't be far away, and the people at NCIS have some great technology."

The older rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah. Still wished I'd caught the guy, though. Does this mean he'll kill again, or what? He only hit Ed, and all his other victims died. So will he stop?"

"Good question," Gibbs replied. He'd dealt with the paramedics and police, briefing everyone, and now wanted to catch up on some details himself. "We can't know until he strikes or doesn't strike again. We'll try to catch him before then." He looked down at Ed, who was still sprawled against the car since no one had bothered to move him. He was snoring softly. "What's up with him?"

"Sedatives," the other two said simultaneously. Gibbs raised an eyebrow. "The paramedic's idea," Alphonse further explained. "Said he'll be out for a few hours."

"And when he wakes up? How are your planning to keep him down from there?"

"Well, I don't really know. The same paramedic was also suggesting handcuffs, but..." The younger brother shrugged.

"Just how pissed off do you think he'll be if we do that?" Mustang finished, albeit with different terminology then Al would've used.

"A lot."

"Pretty badly."

"Not to mention he'd get out of it pretty fast," Ziva said, catching onto their conversation after finishing the one she, Dinozzo, and McGee had been having. "If we leave him there any longer, he's going to be pretty mad when he wakes up."

"Yeah, probably," Dinozzo agreed. "So, where do we put him?"

"Well, whoever he goes with gets to explain to him why we knocked him out, even if it wasn't really our idea..." McGee reminded.

"In that case..." Mustang started, but finished with Gibbs, each looking at the other. "You!" The two both smirked slightly.

"What. Happened?" Izumi shouted at them, storming up the street. The mood between the group immediately became more serious, none of them wanting to be laughing when the teacher's wrath was so near. "How the hell did he get hit?"

Mustang made the bad decision of trying to lessen the mood. "Actually, I'm kinda surprised he didn't just go right under it..." The glare that was shot at him was piercing enough that the others were stunned it didn't come out the back of his head.

"Um, a serial killer was doing hit and runs, and happened to choose Ed has his next victim..." McGee spoke up nervously since no one else was saying anything.

" '_Happened _to choose Ed'?" Izumi snapped back. "He's got bad luck, but it's not that bad."

"For once, I hope it is," Al said with a sigh. "Otherwise this might only be the beginning in a line of bad events."

Izumi impatiently tapped one finger on her other arm. "And where does he happen to be?"

It then struck all of them that telling Edward's very irate teacher that he was passed out on the ground and that no one had bothered to move him would be a _very_ bad idea. Since this occurred to all of them, none of them were brave enough to break the news. The tapping of Izumi's finger continued.

"_Well_?"

The lie slipped from Alphonse's mouth, surprising the others in its effectiveness. "They sent him to the hospital. The paramedics refused to let him stay here. But we've been talking about where he's going to go after that."

It almost worked. Almost. However, Izumi caught on that the extended silence before the lie had continued and the others looked slightly surprised. "Really?" she asked, tone doubtful.

"Yeah, I saw him go." The voice startled all of them, especially the ones hiding behind Al's quick thinking. "I've got no reason to lie to you, do I?" The paramedic who had seemingly randomly appeared turned to Al. "Speaking of him in the hospital, we need his next of kin written down. Is that you? Alright. It's for the paperwork. We always have to do so much of it, even if the person _doesn't _come to the hospital in some cases. Ridiculous, really... And I believe I heard someone say your name was Alphonse Elric, right?"

"Yes..."

"Okay. Well, nice to meet you all. Or, kind of meet you, anyway. The rest of you are really quiet..." The paramedic shook his head as he walked off. Izumi turned back to the guilty group whose asses had just been saved.

"Looks like you got off on this one. I trust he's in good hands right now?"

"Yeah, the hospital takes care of the people in it," Dinozzo assured her. While it wasn't a lie, it wasn't an answer to her question either. She shot him a look that said she'd seen through the whole thing.

"Where's he going after the hospital lets him go?" she asked. "Back to Amestris's hospital? He's still recovering from a bullet wound, and I'm sure the car didn't help that."

"Amestris would make more sense. He'd be around his friends and family," Gibbs said in agreement. "He'll be heading over soon. The faster he's back home, the less trouble he can get into."

"Amen," Mustang muttered.

No one spoke for a second, contemplating what to say next. The soft snoring sound came through, and the ones hiding Ed resisted the urge to panic as Izumi started to put together what the sound was and where it was coming from.

Ziva pulled an excuse together, noting how similar the sound was to another one. "Ah, that's my phone. Put it on buzzer. Excuse me," she said, stepping away from the group with a relieved look on her face that she was no longer involved with the interrogation of Izumi's.

"Where's your husband?" Mustang asked to prevent the snore from coming through again.

She shrugged. "Back in Amestris. We heard from one of your subordinates what had happened, and Sig called their home while I came over here. I should probably be heading back there now..."

"And so should we," Hawkeye pointedly said, appearing by Mustang. "You have work to get done, and we need to let them do their job." She nodded at the NCIS team. Alphonse asked how the team back home had known about the hit and run. "We called them while we were coming back." She pulled out one of the phones McGee had given them. "These really are handy devices, once we could figure out how to use them."

After saying goodbyes, the three of them started to walk off, before Mustang realized something. He turned to the Elric's teacher. "Wait, how did you _get_ here? We had to take a car!"

Izumi stared at him for a second, a prompting eyebrow raised, and then continued on without answering. The world would forever wonder how she made the trip that fast.

"It's like another case of the mysterious boat in the basement," McGee murmured to Dinozzo. "We still have no idea how they do this stuff." Dinozzo shook his head, saying 'no, they didn't', without using out-loud words.

Speaking louder now that Izumi couldn't hear them, Dinozzo sighed. "Well, that paramedic was a lifesaver."

Gibbs raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, duh. That's his _job_."

"No, I mean-"

"I know what you meant, Dinozzo. Now, let's get the kid back to Amestris and stop wasting time, shall we? He's going to be pissed about being left on the ground for so long anyway."

* * *

><p>"Why are there pieces of stone in my hair?" Ed questioned, shaking out his blond hair. He raked his fingers through it, tugging out small pieces of asphalt and dirt. Shaking it loose and around him, the pieces flew around the room and out of his hair. He pulled it back again and braided it before tying it with a hairband. He looked over to Alphonse, prompting an answer to his question.<p>

"Um..." Alphonse rubbed the back of his own hair, trying to pull an excuse together. "Well, we pulled you over to the car, remember? There was probably pieces of rock on the back of the car. Or maybe you laid down for a bit."

"Why does it feel like I fell on my face onto the ground and then went to sleep for a while?"

"Well, you did just get a concussion, and do you really think we would've let you sleep face-down on the road?"

"You've drugged me before!"

"Because you were injured! What did you want us to do, just let you go through the surgery without any sedatives?"

"A little heads-up would've been nice!"

The door flew open, and Winry ran into the room. Pinako entered behind her, both with worried expressions on their faces. The brothers looked up, a bit surprised they had not entered while violently wielding wrenches. "What happened? Why were you hit by a sniper? Were you doing something dangerous again?" Winry demanded, coming to a stop beside Al and next to Ed's bed.

Alphonse and Edward didn't have to glance at each other to know that both were relieved that Winry apparently didn't know about the car. They still had to deal with two worried mechanics, though.

Al decided to try his luck. "No! We didn't! We were just running a quick mission for Mustang, and..." He had been about to mention the bombing, but quickly left that part of things out. "...it turned out we were getting the NCIS team to a murder scene in Dublith, so we stopped by with them to visit teacher."

"And then it turned out the murder had been done by the Drachmans, so there was a conference held between Mustang, Vunsen, and the director of NCIS acting as the leader of the U.S.," Ed continued for his brother. "I was running a message to Mustang, and a sniper missed him and hit me instead."

Winry and Pinako nodded, starting to relax.

Until Winry noticed something. "Wait."

"Yeah?" Ed replied, trying to keep the nervousness out of his tone.

"How long have you two been here?"

"...A few days, I think."

"You think?"

"About twenty-four hours. Why?"

"Why's there dirt in your hair?"

"Um."

"And why are you wearing clothes that look like you were running in them?"

"I wasn't!"

"Don't lie to me!"

Pinako added her opinion at that point. "You two need to stay out of the military's business! You're no longer a part of it, and you just get hurt when you do! Not to mention you need to stop lying to us! You did that during the war you fought in, and it didn't do any good."

Ed shifted his weight in the bed, and Al looked down. "Sorry," the latter muttered.

"So what really happened?" Winry prompted, crossing her arms.

"We just edited a few details..." Edward cautiously said.

"Like?" Pinako made a gesture with her hand that said to hurry it up, that they weren't doing any good stalling.

"Well, when we picked up the agents, there might've been a bomb that went off..." Ed meekly said.

"What!"

"Um, and there might've been a second bullet from a different sniper that grazed Nii-san..."

"And the little, uh, run-in with the car..."

Pinako and Winry stared at them. Then raised threatening wrenches. "Really now?"

* * *

><p>*Selfless advertising. Tsuki and I are going to be writing a story called ER for Alex Rider about an AU where K-Unit didn't go into the SAS. Snake's a paramedic, Wolf's SWAT (technically, CO19 since he's in England). As for the rest of the story, you're just going to have to read it. ^^<p> 


	11. All That is Long Does Not Last

a/n: I got no more ideas. Actually, I ran out before the sniper and was aiming to end it at that chapter, but thanks to the wonderful **rainstripe** was able to pull off some more chapters. When some of you asked for a sequel, I'm not sure if this was what you were asking for, but it's what you got. Did you like this one better than the first, or vice versa? Let me know, please!

Alas, I don't own either series. Too bad, so sad, and thanks for all the fish! (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

* * *

><p>The cursed phone of Gibbs rang. Answering it while stating his name, the senior agent heard Abby respond on the other end. "I've got the guy!"<p>

"You know where he is?" Gibbs asked, gesturing for his agents. The Amestrians had left about five minutes ago with Mustang carrying Ed. He was sure the teen would never live it down. Ever.

"I caught a glimpse of him. Did the fuhrer mention snapping at him? Like, literally, not figuratively? It doesn't matter, 'cause the guy I saw had a singed jacket on in the direction Mustang last saw him running. He hasn't had time to change clothes. He's running on Aberforth Lane*, in a bad neighborhood. Wait, no, he turned onto Niska Road**… He's headed east. Looks like he's running towards the new portal."

"Thanks, Abbs." He flipped the phone shut as the other three reached him. "Abby caught sight of a man running in a singed jacket. Most likely our guy. Last seen on Niska Road, moving east. Let's go."

Without another word, they departed the crime scene, leaving the local police to clean up the mess that already had news groups gathering. The four cars skidded away, forcing the news crews to jump away while taking care to keep filming.

In minutes, McGee had reached Aberforth Lane, and turned right onto Niska Road. They had all spread out, hoping to enclose the man. Through some means, he managed to slip through their grasps. Abby called them again and said that she'd lost him, too, but she'd seen him go up a fire escape. He was on the roofs.

"Call the Fuhrer's office, and tell them he's coming their way," Gibbs said through the speaker phone. Each agent had it turned on, and Abby had connected them all through her computers. Whatever one said the others could hear. Abby nodded, knowing Gibbs would psychically sense it, and started to ring up the other country's leader when Ziva pointed something out.

"Is he going towards the portal in particular, or is he following Ed?" Ziva asked. "Or trying to intercept them?"

Gibbs took that into consideration, and changed his commands. "Abby, have you contacted the office yet?"

"No, sor-"

"That's fine. Major Hawkeye had her phone on her. Call them instead and say to watch the roofs for this man. Ziva might be right, and if he's trying to finish the kid off it'd be better if they were ready for him," Gibbs interrupted, not tolerating the start of the apology.

Abby gave an affirmative through the phone, and they dimly heard her talking to someone else after calling a number.

Meanwhile, Gibbs continued giving instructions. "Dinozzo, pull over to the curb and park your car. Ziva, go and pick him up. We shouldn't be this separated."

"But what about my car!"

"What about it?"

"This is a dangerous neighborhood! If I just leave it here I'll probably never see it again!"

"So lock it!" Gibbs hung up. Defeated, Dinozzo drove his car over to the curb and put it into park. Already he could see people eyeballing it, and he sighed, giving his car's steering wheel an affectionate goodbye pat. Ziva pulled up a minute later, although it should've taken her several to get there. Dinozzo locked his car doors, like it'd do any good, and slid into the passenger seat.

* * *

><p>Hawkeye's new cell phone rang. Still not used to the technology, she looked around blankly for a second, as confused about the sound as Alphonse and Mustang were. Another second passed of looking for it, and by the fourth ring she'd managed to locate it and answer the call. "Hello?"<p>

"Ah! Riza! I don't think they would've been able to catch up to you since they took a round-about way, but it's a possibility that the driver might be coming after you guys. He was last seen on the roofs," Abby quickly said through the phone. Hawkeye relayed this information to the other two. "Gibbs and the others are chasing after him, but there aren't any cameras up on the roofs so I don't know where he is right now. He was last spotted heading in your direction. As I said, he took a longer way, but he's heading in the same direction you guys are. As of now, he'll intercept you before you get to the portal."

Not bothering to point out that by walking it would take an hour or more to walk to the portal so anyone running would definitely get there before them, the female major said, "How far away should he be?"

"Maybe ten blocks, but he was moving pretty fast." A pause on both ends, as Hawkeye repeated this information to the other two conscious people she was walking with and Abby's attention moved to something else. "Hold that thought!"

The line went dead.

Puzzled, Hawkeye close the phone. The fuhrer raised an eyebrow, but she could only shrug in response. They walked for another few minutes, glancing every few seconds above them at the buildings. A bird taking off almost was shot, burned, and mutilated before each of them realized that it was an avian instead of Homo sapien. Slightly embarrassed at how jumpy they were, they all relaxed from their tense positions only to jump again as the cell phone went off.

Hawkeye again answered the phone, again to hear the energetic forensic scientist. "Okay, you can calm down a bit. It looks like he's heading in a different direction. False alarm, sorry."

"Abby, we almost shot three passer-bys, four birds, and the phone," Hawkeye said with exasperation in her tone.

"Sorry," the apologetic response was. "Gibbs and the others are tailing the guy, but we haven't cornered him yet."

"I thought you said he was on the roof. Did you find a way to track him?"

"He must've climbed down at some point. A man with a singed jacket is hurrying down the street, but he's moving parallel to you right now, and he just missed a turn that would've neatly cut across your path. It must've been a coincidence he left in the same direction you did."

"Right. Thanks for letting us know."

"Of course!"

Mustang made a request, and Hawkeye sent it through to Abby. "Can you keep us updated on what happens?"

"Sure. I don't know if Gibbs will mind, but he'll probably allow it." There was some murmuring in the background. "Okay, I need to get back to directing them. Bye!"

"Goodbye."

"What's happening?" Alphonse asked.

"Cameras caught a man in a singed jacket hurrying down the street, but from his direction it doesn't seem like he's after us," Hawkeye summarized. Mustang let out a quiet sigh of relief, not having wanted to be carrying a &%* pound kid when being attacked. True, he believed the other two would've been able to take him down in seconds if he had, but that didn't mean the fuhrer would've liked being in that position.

"So we're more or less in the clear?"

"Yes."

The fuhrer shifted the weight in his arms. The teen wasn't _heavy_… unless you were carrying him. Then he was a couple of buckets full with bricks and rocks. Did this kid eat mountains for breakfast? If so, where was he putting it?

Alphonse, noting the brief moment of unease as Mustang adjusted, commented, "I'd take him for you, but I don't think I'd be able to carry him."

All three immediately pictured Al struggling to carry his brother over his back.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Mustang said, tone implying that he would've waved it off if he'd had a free hand. "He's not that heavy." He glanced down at his ex-subordinate. "Well, for someone his age. I guess it's good he's short." Ed gave a disoriented mumble of complaint, but didn't seem to be awake yet. "Okay, we should have him back in Central's hospital before he wakes up. But we're going to have to explain him falling asleep in the first place."

"Concussions can cause people to pass out," Hawkeye supplied helpfully.

"Awesome. There's our excuse."

"Now just how did we get his unconscious load back to Central's hospital?"Al pondered, since there had been a silent but unanimous decision to never tell Edward of the events after he'd passed out.

Silence.

"We borrowed a car…?" Mustang suggested, trailing off doubtfully.

"From who?" Hawkeye pointed out.

"The NCIS building lent us another one," Al said, building on the idea. "We're not that far away that someone couldn't have dropped one off."

"Now how do we keep him in the hospital once we get him there?" Hawkeye asked.

"Many threats?"

"Handcuffs?"

"More sedatives?"

"Tell him his teacher's going to kill him if he leaves?"

"Handcuffs?"

"I think the sedative idea might work."

"He'd kill us when he figured it out."

"Could handcuff him to the bed."

"He could get out of that."

"Not unless we handcuff _both_ hands…"

"Oh, that's evil. You sound like Nii-san now. But he'd still kill us later."

"Damn. I don't suppose that medic's anywhere nearby with anymore helpful suggestions…"

"No, he's gone."

"Crap. We're screwed. "

"Oh yeah."

* * *

><p>Abby checked her screens, technologically following the driver's jacket. Through curiosity, she skimmed back through the past shots, watching him go in reverse while also keeping an eye on the forward-moving man. The past one walked back a few blocks, turned a few corners, avoided eye contact with everyone, and hurried forward somewhere important with a fast gait. Eventually, his trek had brought him at some point to an alley, where in reverse it showed him throw the jacket on after picking it up after the ground.<p>

Right before he threw it on, she caught a glimpse of his face.

And it wasn't the same person who'd fled the scene of the car crash.

* * *

><p>"Gibbs!" Abby's excited voice said. "That's not him! He dropped his jacket in an ally, and someone else picked it up. He must've noticed that we could find him by watching for the singe marks on the jacket and ditched it where someone else would take it up to throw us off."<p>

Gibbs swore. "Where's the original?"

"I don't know!"

"Find out!"

"I'm doing that! It looks like he's still on the roofs… No! Wait!" Her exclamation came fast enough to save the line from being cancelled. Gibbs's finger, hovering a centimeter over the phone, withdrew and returned to the steering wheel. "A few blocks away from where the jacket was ditched, a convenience store camera caught him walking down the street. He's reversed directions. Nicodemus Alley***, heading south-west."

"Did you three get that?" Gibbs called, his voice carrying through to the combined cell phone signals through Abby's computers. Vocal acknowledgements responded after one failed attempt of Dinozzo's to nod. There were the sounds of squealing brakes and a yelp from Ziva's line from her car and the other agent in her car, and the others knew that a move worthy of a Bond movie had just been performed.

The three cars raced towards their target. Dialogue broke the silence when Abby said, "He's going after Dinozzo's car!"

It took them a few seconds to understand what she had said and that she was serious.

"What?" Gibbs asked.

"He's trying to open Dinozzo's car door. It looks like he's trying to steal it."

"My car hasn't been stolen yet?" Dinozzo asked, surprised it had lasted that long.

"It's about to be. Yup, he got the door open. Better get to it fast or you'll never get it back," Abby cheerfully reminded. "He probably wants it to knock someone else over with it."

Gibbs turned the wheel hard, and slid to stop it diagonally in the road. The driver of the car that had hit Ed was behind the wheel of Dinozzo's car, trying to hotwire the car into working for him. Behind him, Ziva pulled her car up behind him. Even as she slammed to a halt, Dinozzo started to get out. McGee came in from a side road, halting and getting out of his car.

All four agents moved towards the man.

* * *

><p>Two days later, and Mustang and Hawkeye left Central on a train to inspect the southern HQ. Ed and Al had almost taken the same train so they could head back to Risembool, but just about everyone who knew the elder had been hit had bombarded him and forced him to stay in the hospital until he got better. The NCIS team had proudly caught the culprit for the car accident, and had learned that the driver had been angry about his wife being hit by a car in a hit-and-run and had wanted to get back at the local police for not catching the killer by performing hit-and-runs of his own. Ling and Lan Fan had left for Xing, after having stopped by to leech some money out of Mustang since Ling's usual scapegoat was hospitalized. Alphonse had managed to convince his brother of what had happened surrounding his unconsciousness, which was a relief for all involved. With a final death threat against moving before his injuries healed aimed at her oldest pupil, Izumi left for Dublith with her husband. The chimeras had headed out with the Xingese to continue looking for a way to get their bodies back.<p>

Diplomatic issues were still running high, and the mess between the Amestrians, Xingese, Americans, and Drachmans had yet to be resolved. However, it looked like the whole thing would be pushed under the rug shortly. Only a few people were in on everything that had really happened, and the thing had been so complicated that no one was really sure who to blame anymore. With flailing fingers being pointed at everyone and anyone, eventually they were going to have to come to an agreement or forget about it. It would probably be a pain in the ass later, but they'd deal with that later if anyone ever tried to bring it up for leverage if any could be used by it.

The generals were still very unhappy about the way things had been handled by Mustang, but if anything good had come from Ed's recent unlucky happenings it was that the fuhrer managed to gain sympathy and was let off the hook. Vance also sent in a good word for him to try and help ease the problems.

From a second letter from Vance that had been sent regarding the confusion of the four-way sniper scenario, he mentioned in the conclusions to all that had happened that the president of the U.S. was very confused about being in two places at once, since he'd been taking a trip to Japan while he'd been apparently being shot at in an Amestrian office. However, the Director of Central Intelligence**** explained to him that they'd given permission for the impersonation.

The CIA and FBI had been very put-out from being ignored during these festivities, but nothing could've been done about it and they came to accept it. That didn't mean that they insistently dug into what had occurred until nothing else could have been found out about what had happened in all the confusion that had managed to be thrown into the air over just a few days.

The NCIS team was shielded from much of the crap that was blown into the wind by Vance, who took most of the blows. All in all, there weren't that many blows that reached NCIS. The CIA and FBI took the spotlight off them, and Mustang lifted some weight from their shoulders as well.

The only problem that reached them was something that was laughed at.

Reveling in another closed case, the four agents in the bull pen worked on sorting through the paperwork. Light jabs were tossed at each other, but the good feeling of a job well done sifted through them. McGee made a comment of wondering what the news had caught, and Dinozzo had responded by turning it on.

"_Reports of several killings have stunned the eastern area of the city of Washington-" _the news reported began.

" 'Stunned'? 'Stunned'?" Dinozzo muttered under his breath. "What kind of dictionary are they using?"

"_-but we've heard that the culprit behind these murders was caught. The local police department had been working on closing this horrifying string of deaths, and Naval Criminal Investigative Services, or NCIS, offered their assistance after two marines were killed. After the deaths of six victims, and the close call of a seventh, the killer accidentally crashed his car. After taking off on foot, NCIS agents sped off to capture the culprit for these horrendous crimes. He was captured and is currently undergoing investigation." _During the dialogue, a film was rolling of the crime scenes and pictures of the deceased. None of the news people had managed to get a picture of the Amestrians, or even a glimpse of them in one of the films. As the news anchor said 'sped off', the picture went to the one where Gibbs almost ran over the camera man.

"And then Gibbs killed the annoying news team. The end," Dinozzo said, snickering.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Mustang stared irritably at the train they had been riding on. Hawkeye joined him in the staring contest, along with just about everyone else who had been riding. "We have two hours to make it to the southern HQ if we want to be on time. We're about five hours away by train."<p>

"Of course this train had to break down," Mustang sighed. Then he paused. He snickered. And then, to the surprise of everyone who could hear him, he burst into laughter. "Of course this train had to break down!"

"Sir…?" Hawkeye asked of her possibly-mentally-unstable superior.

"Ed was planning to ride this train!"

* * *

><p><em>All that is gold does not glitter,<em>

_All that is long does not last,_

_All that is old does not wither,_

_Not all that is over is past._

_Not all that have fallen are vanquished,_

_A king may yet be without crown,_

_A blade that was broken be brandished,_

_And towers that were strong may fall down._

_-Lord of the Rings, _J. R. R. Tolkien

* * *

><p>*Ah, <em>Firefly<em>, my muse. Well, Aberforth, it seems like you are not only incredibly not-screwed in the Companion Guild, but you also are making a name for yourself in the bad areas of town. Congratulations. I'm sure we all applaud you.

**Okay, so it's an obsession I have with that show. What's your point? And more importantly, _why aren't you watching it right now?_

***And now we're on the Dresden Files.

****This is the Director of the CIA. I learned that from reading a book on the Year of the Spy.

AAHHHH I LOVE YOU ALL RIGHT NOW! I LOVE EVERYTHING IN THIS WORLD! Tsuki and I just came back from a concert with My Chemical Romance playing. We didn't know the closing band, Blink-182, but it was enough for us to stay through the first half and listen to the performance MCR put on. They played Helena, Teenagers, The Black Parade, Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na…), The Only Hope For Me is You, The Kids From Yesterday,Planetary, S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W/, I'm Not Okay, and Happy Birthday (for Mikey Way). There was probably another, but it's not like I was writing them down during the concert. The last song was Cancer, which was about the grandmother of two of the players who died from cancer, and people in the audience were holding up lighters and candles and the lights from their cell phones. It was beautiful.

And with that very random note, I conclude this fic.


End file.
